The eurozone crisis has captivated audiences around the world, but it is recent economic data from China that should be capturing the attention of policymakers. Despite confident predictions from Wen Jiabao that the economy was heading for more growth, April figures across a range of sectors make for grim reading: industrial production is down, fixed-asset investment and retail spending slowed, home sales plummeted, and export sales growth was only half what it was in March.
Category Archives: Economy
Big Oil’s Excessive Profits? Baloney!
One of the most effective arguments used against the oil industry is that it earns “excessive” profits that must be taxed away. But as with the rest of the left’s failed energy agenda, it’s based on pure falsehoods.
With prices for crude above $100 a barrel, it’s no surprise the news media are fixated on oil companies’ “record profits.”
The Four Numbers That Spell Debt Disaster for the U.S.
Consider the following numbers: 2.2, 62.8, 454, 5.9. Drawing a blank? Not to worry. They don’t mean much on their own.
Now consider them in context:
1) 2.2 percent is the average interest rate on the U.S. Treasury’s marketable and non-marketable debt (February data).
2) 62.8 months is the average maturity of the Treasury’s marketable debt (fourth quarter 2011).
3) $454 billion is the interest expense on publicly held debt in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30.
4) $5.9 trillion is the amount of debt coming due in the next five years.
For the moment, Nos. 1 and 2 are helping No. 3 and creating a big problem for No. 4. Unless Treasury does something about No. 2, Nos. 1 and 3 will become liabilities while No. 4 has the potential to provoke a crisis.
Mortgage Backed Bonds Make a Comeback
Some Wall Street investors made money as the mortgage market boomed, while others profited when it fell apart.
Having reaped big gains during both of those turns, Greg Lippmann, a former star trader at Deutsche Bank, is now catching the next upswing — buying the same securities built from mortgages that he bet against before the financial crisis erupted.
Top Articles To End The Week
Average Investors May Finally Be Lured Back Into Stocks
Why Regulations Do Little For The Small Investor
5 Myths of the Post-Financial Crisis World
Chinese capitalism is just another knockoff
Is Inflation Driving the U.S. Wealth/Income Gap?
President Obama’s Clueless, Contemptuous Energy Speech
Obama Plans Won’t Cut Oil Prices For Decades, If Ever
3 Lies They Tell Us About Budget Deficits
Thanks to an explosion of Keynesian deficit spending around the world, an explosion that has predictably correlated with weak economic output, major ink is being spilled about the economic crack-up unfolding before our eyes. To state the obvious, wasteful, capital destroying governments can only spend what they first extract from the private sector.
In the above sense government spending is always and everywhere an economic retardant. That’s the case because governments by definition are not disciplined by profit, thus explaining spending that merely consumes capital.
Why U.S. Stocks Could Outperform in 2012
A new year, an old investor dilemma: Is it better to run with last year’s biggest winner even though it has gotten pricier, or to shift money into the losers even though they might have further to fall?
This time around, the winner is the U.S. In 2011, stocks broadly stunk and bonds shined, but U.S. issues of both outdid those of most foreign rivals.
There’s reason to believe the U.S. will compare well in 2012, too. “We think it’s in a major uptrend versus other regions,” says Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer of U.S. Trust.
End of Day Best Market WrapUp
Housing, Stocks, Gold & Oil: Hot or Not in 2012? – Nin-Hai Tseng, Fortune
A Bullish Dollar & Other Surprises For 2012 – Matthew Lynn, MarketWatch
Dogs of the Dow Big Winners In 2011 – Steven Russolillo, MarketBeat
Grim Lessons from the 30 Years War – Wolfgang Munchau, Financial Times
3 Stocks Likely to Crash Harder Than Sears – Jeff Reeves, MarketWatch
The Banda Islands Teach Us about Capitalism – Michael Schuman, TIME
Oil price near $100 on global security concerns
Oil prices rose above $100 a barrel Friday as worries over global security issues outweighed weak economic data in the U.S.
Benchmark crude ended the day at $99.68 per barrel in New York, up 15 cents. It rose as high as $100.23 during the session. Brent crude finished 7 cents higher at $107.96 a barrel in London.
Tensions between Iran and western nations, along with unrest in Syria, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Iraq have raised worries that oil supplies could be disrupted if the unrest spreads or grows more serious.
Are you missing $4,155? We found it.
It’s been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget.
When the gifts from Grandma are unloaded and holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981.
