Archive for December, 2008

Here’s the news release from the Conference Board: Consumer Confidence Index
No real news here. Consumers are taking a huge hit as businesses cut jobs and house prices continue to fall. So it cannot be a surprise to see surveys of confidence reflecting doom and gloom.
The longer this continues the worse off we… »

Today’s news is brief but pretty bad, house prices are continuing their sharp fall all across the country. Here’s the announcement of the Case-Schiller index from MarketWatch:
Home prices off record 18% in past year, Case-Shiller says – MarketWatch

None of this is really unexpected. The housing bubble was insanely inflated and has… »

I have to admit that this comment from Krugman raises an issue I have often pondered about. First here’s his column from today’s New York Times: Op-Ed Columnist – Paul Krugman – Fifty Herbert Hoovers – NYTimes.com
This is a fundamental problem for America. It is, for many issues, fifty small countries… »

Just a quick note. Here is a government table showing the change in unemployment from November 2007 to November 2008: Over-the-Year Change in Unemployment Rates for States
The really interesting point to note is that some states that were not part of the real estate bubble are among the losers as well as the… »

It is a sad commentary on how bad things have become when even the most pessimistic forecasts are found to be too upbeat. That’s the situation with the latest unemployment statistic. The jump in jobless claims was the worst since late 1982 at the bottom of what was then the worst recession since… »

As we head to the last weekend before the holidays let’s recap a couple of stories:
First, as expected, the White House stepped in and lent money to GM and Chrysler. The amount seems small to me. $17.5 billion is chump change to companies who are bleeding red ink the way those two are…. »

Just to annoy you all I thought I would point out how little Goldman Sachs paid in income taxes this past year. Here’s the news report from Bloomberg:
Bloomberg.com:
… »