The Baltic Dry Index…..Heading In The Wrong Direction

| December 20, 2010

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a number issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange. It tracks worldwide international shipping prices of various dry bulk cargoes and provides “an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea through 26 shipping routes measured on a timecharter and voyage basis”.  So now you know!

Wikileaks Julian Assange Says He Has The Goods On A Big U.S. Bank

| December 20, 2010

Stay tuned…..This will be a big story, maybe as soon as tomorrow. A heads up, last Friday Bank of America blocked all of Wikileaks payments.  So… Is that a hint of a nervous banker? According to an advance preview of an interview with Julian Assange by the Times of London’s Alexi Mostrous, the Wikileaks founder has announced […]

Turn Out The Lights, The Party Is Over!

| December 20, 2010

$2 Trillion Debt Crisis Threatens To Bring Down 100+ U.S. Cities Way to go Meredith Whitney…..Logic says the states will be doing huge (really huge) cut backs and layoffs…..So inquiring minds want to know how the economy can grow in these circumstances. To all of the economists out there, it sounds like Meredith is one of the few that gets it! […]

Solstice Eclipse Overlap First In 456 Years For Canada

| December 20, 2010

This year’s winter solstice will be an event that will occur on Tuesday in Canada and will coincide with a full lunar eclipse that hasn’t been seen in 456 years. The celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that […]

Ireland Gets A Warning From ECU

| December 20, 2010

Isn’t it a little late for the ECU to be threatening about things here, the horse is already out of the barn!  Does the ECU have an alternate plan or set of options here….Nope, that’s just what we thought, none! The European Central Bank warned Ireland that proposed legislation revamping the country’s financial system could threaten some of the ECB’s […]

Riots Erupt In Bangladesh After Stock Market Plunges 6.7%

| December 19, 2010

Oh please, they got to be kidding?  What are they protesting?  Did anyone protest when they made money in the stock market. NO! After the stock market plunged on Sunday by 552 points or 6.72%, angry investors took to the streets, “threw bricks at police, marched in the streets shouting slogans, and staged a sit-down protest.”   “The […]

Home Ownership Rates Continue To Decline

| December 19, 2010

The highest ownership rate of all time was 69.2% around 2005-2006, the low going back to 1965 is 62.9%, and we are currently at 66.9%.  The bottom line: It looks like we have a ways to go on the down side!

So What Gives Here In The Stock Market?

| December 19, 2010

This chart pretty much sums things up……a trading range looks like the most likely scenario at best.  If not, well…..everyone probably knows what the alternative would look like.  Hint, the word starts with a D as in Down.

Credit Unions Show Interesting Changes

| December 19, 2010

Some interesting changes were made on December 16’th concerning Credit Unions!  Stay Tuned! As of the end of  November, 372 federally insured credit unions with assets of $43.4 billion were designated as CAMEL code 4 or 5. In addition, there were 1,792 CAMEL 3 credit unions with assets of $158.2. Overall, 22.3 percent of all credit union assets are […]

U.S. Federal Budget Chart

| December 19, 2010

Well, the receipts (aqua color) aren’t looking so good, but the outlays (red color) are rolling to the upside.  Just the opposite of what should be happening. www.zerohedge.com  

President Obama Is Expected To Announce Cuts To Social Security During His State Of The Union Address According To Politico Which Quotes “Well-Placed Sources.”

| December 19, 2010

Austerity anyone? This will be political suicide for the Democrats, plain and simple. “The tax deal negotiated by President Barack Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is just the first part of a multistage drama.” Next up on the path of what many see as the terminal alienation of the president from […]

Britain On Track For Coldest Winter Ever

| December 18, 2010

Coldest December (so far) since records began as temperatures plummet to minus 10C bringing travel chaos across Britain….. Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned by grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill. Tonight the nation is braced for another 10 inches of snow and  more sub-zero temperatures, with no […]

Quote Of The Day

| December 18, 2010

“Make Each Day A Masterpiece!”                            John R. Wooden – UCLA Basketball Coach

What Does This Tell Us….It Tells Us That The Mega Rich Are Getting Richer At the Expense Of Everyone Else

| December 17, 2010

Source: New York Times

All The More Reason To Ask How The Real Estate Bubble Got So Large

| December 17, 2010

Real average earnings have not increased in 50 years…..So the next question is how do people make ends meet?  We don’t know, that’s why we ask the question!  Were we better off in 1972 vs. 2010?  Maybe so….   Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#real-average-earnings-have-not-increased-in-50-years-6#ixzz18Q3QqKn9

The Wealth Gap

| December 17, 2010

The gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn’t been this wide since the Roaring Twenties……   http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1

U.S. Tax Rate Chart

| December 17, 2010

Tax rates are declining for everyone… But especially the top 1% .  We would expect things to be pretty much the same in 2010 as they were in 2007. From: http://www.businessinsider.com/20-more-tax-facts-that-will-make-your-head-explode-2010-4#tax-rates-are-declining-for-everyone-especially-the-top-1-19

Did You Know…..

| December 17, 2010

McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys, with one included in 20% of all its sales.   Each week nearly one-third of the U.S. population visits Walmart’s U.S. stores.   Last year Walmart sold more bananas than any other item.   Walmart is the largest overall employer in the USA.   Pages in the tax […]

Government Statistics….Liar Liar Pants On Fire!

| December 17, 2010

Liar Liar Pants On Fire!  The chart below is total consumer credit outstanding. Interestingly, when we looked at it, somehow it showed an uptick. That seemed odd and didn’t square with the credit card data.  Low and behold…… they (the government) now count student loans as consumer credit, whereas they did not in the past. Geez, so federally supported credit (ie. student-backed […]

Credit Card Use Has Changed In A Dramatic Way

| December 17, 2010

Debit cards are the new growth area…..”The lowest percentage of shoppers in the 27-year-history of a national survey said they used credit cards over the Thanksgiving weekend, while the use of general credit cards like Visa and MasterCard fell 11 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the credit bureau TransUnion. “Britt […]

Extension Of Unemployment Benefits Won’t Help Beyond 99 Weeks

| December 17, 2010

The extension for unemployment benefits that is part of the compromise tax deal is good news for many of the unemployed, but it won’t provide aid to anyone who’s been out of a job over 99 weeks. The extension worked out by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans only lets unemployed workers continue to draw […]

U.S. House Passes Tax-Cut Extension Bill

| December 16, 2010

The U.S. Congress passed an $858 billion bill extending for two years all Bush-era tax cuts, and now the measure goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. Majorities of both parties supported the bill. Voting in favor were 139 Democrats and 138 Republicans, while 112 Democrats and 36 Republicans voted against it. Eight lawmakers didn’t vote. The […]

Economic Tid Bits

| December 16, 2010

Neal Soss at Credit Suisse: We have rising prices in gasoline and food.  That is worldwide.  It is also the warning sign of the worst-case “nightmare scenario.”  It as an “eruption of headline inflation (food and gasoline) with no accompanying pick-up in wages or real growth.”  David R. Kotok of Cumberland Advisors: Through the December […]

6’th Circuit Finds That E-mails Are Protected Under 4’th Amendment, Search Warrants Needed For Government E-mail Interception

| December 16, 2010

Let’s just say this is courtesy of the Wikileaks firestorm… Did you know that E-mails are now today’s primary mode of communication (that’s the main reason the U.S. Post Office is basically broke) , and that e-mail has been subject to the same amount of government surveillance as having a phone bugged since the Patriot Act.  Fair to assume this may force […]

Hmm, So What Happened To The Housing Recovery?

| December 16, 2010

Home Mortgage Rates Spike To The Upside

| December 16, 2010

The most recent look at the 30 Year Cash Fannie Mortgage showed a rise by 11 bps overnight, and by a stunning 1% in the last month. At 4.703% the prevailing wholesale mortgage rate is back to the highest it has been since May 2010. And while some have speculated that this inflection in rates would have […]

Wikileaks Julian Assange Makes Bail

| December 16, 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had his bail ruling in Britain upheld on appeal.  It was considered a setback to U.K. prosecutors who sought to keep him jailed during an extradition fight with Sweden. The ruling today by the High Court in London upholds a Dec. 14 decision to free Assange on condition that he turn in his […]

United States Debt Is Fast Approaching 100% Of GDP

| December 15, 2010

This chart sure goes back a long ways in time!   1792-Present!   Geez

World GDP (Gross National Product) Map

| December 15, 2010

When was the last time we saw this chart turn down…..Umm, You’re right if you said we haven’t….Until now! www.mybudget360.com

32’nd Consecutive Week Of Equity Fund Outflows

| December 15, 2010

ICI has just released money flows…..and we have the 32nd consecutive outflow from domestic equity mutual funds. Total outflows for the year to date are $96 billion.   We also saw for the first time in a while, an outflow of $401 million in taxable bond funds  (and $1.3 billion in outflows from muni bonds). And here is the cumulative flows chart:

The Real Story On The Tax Cut Bill

| December 15, 2010

Wow!  We’re not sure just where the President is going with this……. The Hill reports that the president has been telling members of Congress that failure to pass the tax-cut legislation could result in the end of his presidency. This begs the question: How does one view this….Reuters reports 2010 may be the second highest bonus payout season […]

Senate Approves New Tax Bill Extending Bush Tax Cuts For Two Years….Done Deal, Now It Moves To The House

| December 15, 2010

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday officially approved an $858 billion bill extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years in an 81-19 vote. Next up the House vote…..huff and puff maybe as soon as Thursday. The new legislation would extend Bush-era tax cuts for an additional two years for people of all income levels. It would cut […]

Portugal Sugar Hoarding Amid Shortage

| December 15, 2010

Looks like we’re seeing inflation but not the kind Ben Bernanke is trying to create, such as real estate going up, instead it’s commodities.  Sugar at 30 year highs….stay tuned, many commodities (wheat, corn, soybeans,  rice etc.) may be getting ready to explode if any kind of shortages show up. Portugal Tries to Prevent Sugar Hoarding Amid Shortage By Alan […]

Anti-Austerity Riots Erupt In Greece

| December 15, 2010

Protesters:  “We want the government to take back the latest labor law that will hurt workers’ rights.”….Not a chance, didn’t they hear that Greece is broke. ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Protesters clashed with riot police across Athens on Wednesday, torching cars, hurling gasoline bombs and sending Christmas shoppers fleeing in panic during a general strike […]

Wikileaks Julian Assange’s Problems Are Only Just Beginning

| December 14, 2010

A lawyer for Julian Assange of WikiLeaks says a secret grand jury is meeting outside Washington to consider charges in the release of thousands of sensitive U.S. documents. Mark Stephens, one of Wikileaks lawyers told David Frost on Al-Jazeera television that they have heard from Swedish authorities that there has been a “secretly empaneled” grand jury […]

Stratfor: Taking Stock of WikiLeaks

| December 14, 2010

December 10,2010 By George Friedman Julian Assange has declared that geopolitics will be separated into pre-“Cablegate” and post-“Cablegate” eras. That was a bold claim. However, given the intense interest that the leaks produced, it is a claim that ought to be carefully considered. Several weeks have passed since the first of the diplomatic cables were […]

U.K. Court Grants Bail To WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange….But Not So Fast, Sweden Challenges The Decision

| December 14, 2010

A judge in the U.K. granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail but he fights sexual-misconduct accusations in Sweden and will remain in custody after Swedish prosecutors said they would challenge the decision.

We Didn’t Want To Say It As This Huge Storm Was Approaching, But Now We Will….100 Year Records Are Now Being Broken!

| December 13, 2010

The blizzard that pummeled the Upper Midwest over the weekend was one for the record books, burying some communities with nearly 2 feet of snow and breaking 100-year-old records in others and all the way to the South, new records have been set as snow and brutally cold air blasted in behind the storm. Minnesota and […]

Muni Bonds Signal Trouble For State And Local Government Borrowing

| December 13, 2010

This added interest expense should bust state and local budgets for next year. So what’s a borrower to do?  Well to start…cut backs are in order across the board and that’s official! Investors are demanding higher interest payments on municipal bonds in a race for year-end issuance.  Yields are pushing highest rates since 2009 while the Build America Bonds program appeared […]

One Down And One To Go! Senate Sends The Tax Cut Bill To The House According To The Wall Street Journal

| December 13, 2010

The $858+ billion bill to extend the Bush tax cuts has secured 60 votes in the Senate, the minimum needed to schedule a final vote. That tally effectively gives a green-light for the Senate to finish the debate and send the package to the House.  Inquiring minds wonder what kind of pork was added to this monstrosity.

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