Category: Recession 2008 - 2010
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Secret to Measuring the Pulse of the Economy / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Tom Dyson writes: In 2005, I wandered into the Simpson Yard in Jacksonville and struck up a conversation with the duty manager. The Simpson Yard belongs to the Norfolk Southern Railroad. It's their major freight yard in Jacksonville.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Recession Is Far From Over / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Claus Vogt writes: The crisis is over, or nearly so, say Wall Street and the huge majority of bulls. All those economists, central bankers and analysts, who didn’t see this crisis coming and who underestimated its severity all the way down, are sure that the worst is over now.
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Plastic Green Shoots of Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Most investors and pundits are celebrating the green shoots of economic stabilization and the belief that there will be a “V” shaped recovery in GDP growth. I believe, however, that what we are experiencing is just an artificially derived respite and that we have only entered the eye of our debt induced hurricane.
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Monday, June 15, 2009
Premature Excitement that the Recession is Over / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The good news is the recession is over.
Well not quite, not just yet. However, so many are cheering the event in advance that I put on my party hat, tooted my horns, threw confetti, and I even launched bottle rockets in celebration. It was a sight to behold.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Strip Club Depression / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Doug French writes: Strip clubs are the ultimate boom time creation. After all, the business model rests on masses of men overpaying for cocktails while overpaying lithesome young women to bump and grind on their laps – all of this after paying an exorbitant charge just to enter the building.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NIESR Reports UK Recession Over, Economic Recovery Underway / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The mainstream 'respected' forecasting organisation, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) reported earlier today that it believed that Britain's economic depression bottomed in March and that economic output across the economy rose in April 09 by 0.2% and by 0.1% in May 2009, which follows my own analysis of a stabilising economy a week ago which was also emailed to the NIESR forecasting organisation.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Is the U.S. Economy Heading for a “Jobless Recovery?” / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Don Miller writes: Could the U.S. economy be looking at a “jobless recovery?”
After the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression reached its apex late last year, the U.S. economy has shown signs of life in recent months. Stock prices have soared.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Brain Dead Union Puts its Members Out of Work / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
On Monday, the Boston Globe union voted down a contract proposal that would have cut pay and benefits by 10%. Now the union faces cuts of 23%, and possibly the end of the newspaper altogether.
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Sunday, June 07, 2009
Optimistic Unemployment and Housing Market Forecasts Looking Silly / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Economics may be the "dismal science" but economists as a group sure seem to be an optimistic lot. Yes, there are a handful of "doomers" like Nouriel Roubini but most economists did not see the recession coming until it was already 10 months old.
Please consider unemployment forecasts. The Fed forecast unemployment at 8.4% in 2009 and the "adverse forecast" was at 10.3% in 2010.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
U.S. Treasury Spread Model Suggests Economic Recovery has Started / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
“According to the New York Fed, ‘Research beginning in the late 1980s documents the empirical regularity that the slope of the yield curve is a reliable predictor of future real economic activity.’
“The New York Fed just released its latest ‘Probability of US Recession Predicted by Treasury Spread’, with data through May 2009, and the Fed’s recession probability forecast through May 2010. The NY Fed’s model uses the spread between 10-year and 3-month Treasury rates (currently at 3.11%) to calculate the probability of a recession in the United States twelve months ahead.
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Friday, June 05, 2009
U.S. Jobs Contract 17th Straight Month; Unemployment Rate Soars to 9.4% / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the April Employment Report.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009
U.S. Unemployment Claims Dips Green Shoots? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The string of 17 consecutive weeks of higher continuing claims ended today with slight dip in claims.
Continuing claims hit 6.788 million last week, setting a 17th consecutive record (revised slightly lower to 6.750 million). Today's number is 6.735 million, breaking the streak (assuming the number is not revised up later).
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The False Economic and Stock Market Recoveries / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Claus Vogt writes: The stock market has been jumping for joy over the last few days. Yet I can’t see exactly what investors are cheering about. Heck, two of America’s most prominent companies, GM and Chrysler, just declared bankruptcy!
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
ISM Report, Businesses Still Contracting, Economic Weakness Continues / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The Institute for Supply Management Report On Business® shows the May 2009 Non-Manufacturing ISM is Still Contracting, but at a lesser rate. As is often the case, details and the headline numbers suggest different things.
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The Geography of Global Economic Recession / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Peter Zeihan writes: The global recession is the biggest development in the global system in the year to date. In the United States, it has become almost dogma that the recession is the worst since the Great Depression. But this is only one of a wealth of misperceptions about whom the downturn is hurting most, and why.
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
No Green Shoots, Rail, Truck Traffic Down; Air Cargo Hoping For a Bottom / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Green shoots are not yet showing up in cargo statistics. Let's take a look starting with AAR: Rail freight traffic down from a year ago.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
The Deflation/ Depression Economic Recovery Plan / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Well, well, well. Here at the Agency we have spent a couple of years waiting for the US economic establishment to go public with the Deflation / Depression Recovery Plan, what we call The Eggertsson Theory and this week we got it.
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Deeper Origins of the Economic Crisis / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Shamus Cooke writes: For all the horror the global economic crisis has caused for so many people, one progressive consequence has emerged: many of these people are becoming politically conscious — searching for information to better understand their political and economic system. They want to know how things got the way they did and what can be done about it. Unfortunately, much of the resulting analysis has focused too little on actual causes, and too much on abstract financial details and other consequences of deeper economic problems.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Consumers Will Lead the Way to Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
In recent recessions, consumer spending led the economy in the recovery. Many investors are counting on the same thing, taking place during this recovery. They will be disappointed.
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Global Debt Deleveraging Recession Gets Worse as Government Deficit Grows / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Things That Go Bump in the Night
A Trillion Dollars as Far as the Eye Can See
The Global Recession Gets Worse
Where Will the Money Come From?
The Paradox of Deficits
From ghoulies and ghosties, And long-leggedy beasties, And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! --Old Scottish Prayer
There is something that is bumping around in my worry closet. The bond market is not behaving as if there is deflation in our future, and the dollar is getting weaker. Unemployment keeps rising, but most of all, the US government deficit looks to be spinning out of control. This week we look at all of this and take a tour around the world to see what is happening. There is a lot of interesting material to cover.
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