Consumer spending is slowing and the auto manufacturers are being hit hard this year. When money gets tight, the big ticket items are the first to get cut from the budget, and a new car is “the” big ticket item. Auto analysts are reporting that the U.S. vehicle market could sink to its lowest level […]
Category Archives: The Economy
Subprime Primer
Now that the Fed has taken historic steps to bailout the investment bank Bear Stearns, they’ll be renewed interest in how this whole subprime debacle got started and how it reached today’s proportions.
There’s a good article posted on Wikipedia describing the history of the subprime mortgage crisis, the roles of those involved, and it’s impact […]
Does History Repeat Itself?
As so poignantly written yesterday by Andrew Leonard on Salon.com:
The word of the day on Wall Street is “deleveraging.” The simplest way to explain the concept is with an old bromide: What goes up, must come down. If you borrow a lot of money to make big bets in the market when times are […]
Vanguard Skepticism
I was reading John Spence’s post on MarketWatch.com about the recent announcement of CEO changes occurring at The Vanguard Group, and just had to comment on it.
In that post, John writes:
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Vanguard Group has a unique ownership structure that allows the investment giant to provide mutual-funds at a low cost. But with […]
Martin Feldstein Speaks
According to the NBER website:
Martin Feldstein is the George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
From 1982 through 1984, Martin Feldstein was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan’s chief economic adviser. He served as President of the American Economic […]
Retail Sales Report
As anyone who watches these things knows, an important economic indicator, the Census Bureau’s Retail Sales Report for January will be released on Wednesday. The results of this report should be a critical factor in the direction of the stock market this week. If this report turns out as poorly as last week’s ISM Report, […]
