The Wall Street Journal – Tenants Feel Pinch of Rising Rents But here’s the bad news: Rising rents are squeezing many families and leaving them with less to spend. Several factors have pushed rents up. Rental and apartment housing is in short supply but demand has grown after several years of foreclosures and population growth.… Continue reading Rents Continue To Rise
The Wall Street Journal – Signs of Negative Economic Impact Growing The damage may already be done. Even if lawmakers manage to avoid most of the $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect this week, the risks to the U.S. economy have risen as consumers and investors recoil from Washington’s… Continue reading The Effect Of Going Over The Fiscal Cliff
The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Gauging the Guidance That Models Give the Fed When the Federal Reserve said in December that it would keep short-term interest rates near zero until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5%, it was backed by a team of geeks who get little attention outside the central bank but… Continue reading The Computers That Guide FOMC Policy
The Wall Street Journal – French Court Rejects 75% Tax Rate France’s top constitutional authority on Saturday threw out a government plan to impose a top income-tax rate of 75% on high-wealth individuals as part of next year’s austerity budget aimed at reining in bloated budget deficits. The “exceptional solidarity contribution” for the next two… Continue reading France Finds A Limit On Tax Rates
None Today
Comment This weekend is shaping up like a 2008-type weekend because of the fiscal cliff. As a result, we felt a rare Weekend Update was in order. Did Stock Futures “Flash Crash” Late Friday Stock futures trade for 15 minutes after the NYSE close. As the next chart shows, stock futures “flash crashed” in this… Continue reading Weekend Update – The Latest On The Fiscal Cliff And Monday Morning
The Associated Press – AP IMPACT: Ordinary folks losing faith in stocks Based on AP’s calculations, individuals accounted for 40 percent to 50 percent of money going to U.S. stock ETFs in recent years. If you assume 50 percent, individual investors have put $194 billion into U.S. stock ETFs since April 2007. But they’ve also… Continue reading The Public Does Not Trust The Market
The Wall Street Journal – Lockstep Stock Moves Lock Up Investors Woe betide the stock pickers. While fund managers haven’t exactly gone the way of the dinosaur, it is getting harder for them to justify their existence. If present trends hold, 2013 may bring little relief. The degree to which individual stocks move in lockstep,… Continue reading Correlations
Bloomberg.com – Obama Summons Congress Leaders as Budget Deadline Nears President Barack Obama summoned congressional leaders to a White House meeting three days before a year-end deadline to avoid $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases as lawmakers gave little sign they intend to act together on a budget plan. Obama, who had been… Continue reading One More Attempt At A Deal
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – Consumer sentiment weakens as fiscal crisis looms U.S. consumer confidence fell more than expected in December, hitting a four-month low as a looming fiscal crisis sapped what had been a growing sense of optimism about the economy. The report heightened concerns that a failure by Washington to… Continue reading Is The Fiscal Cliff Scaring Consumers?
None Today
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment As the stories below detail, Treasury Secretary Geithner said that the U.S. will hit the debt limit on December 31. The Treasury Secretary has the ability to pick the date we hit the ceiling and he indeed chose the day of the fiscal cliff for maximum political leverage. … Continue reading The Debt Ceiling Will Be Reached December 31