The Economist – The public sector unions: The battle ahead The struggle with public-sector unions should be about productivity and parity, not just spending cuts Fixing the public sector must not be allowed to degenerate into demonising it. Its health is vital to the health of society as a whole, not least because of its… Continue reading This Has To Happen To Fix State Finances
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: U.S. Economy Overheating? We Should Be So Lucky Wall Street lives in a world of extremes. Today’s raging bull market may morph into tomorrow’s angry bear. Forecasts of inflation and deflation can be found on the same page. The Federal Reserve’s plans for an early exit from its emergency stimulus were… Continue reading Is The Economy Overheating?
The Wall Street Journal – For Retailers, Holiday Sales Mix Joy, Disappointment Many retailers reported December sales Thursday that missed company or analyst estimates, with discount and teen clothing chains posting particularly lackluster results. A Thomson-Reuters index of 28 leading retailers showed sales rose 3.1% at stores open at least a year, less than the… Continue reading Holiday Sales
The Wall Street Journal – Why You Shouldn’t Trust Wall Street’s Top Stocks for 2011 So I contacted Thomson Reuters, which tracks the recommendations of Wall Street analysts. I asked them for the 10 stocks that analysts rated most highly a year ago. That meant the stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index with… Continue reading How Good Are Wall Street Forecasts?
The Financial Times – China’s fiscal policy is out on its yuan A few days into 2011, and one of its big themes is already obvious. While most of the world’s biggest economies are committed to monetary looseness and fiscal tightness, China is doing just the opposite. Beijing is using a full array of tools… Continue reading All About China
International Business Times – Top 10 greatest trades of all time 1. John Paulson’s bet against subprime mortgages 2. Jesse Livermore’s call on the Crash of 1929 3. John Templeton’s foray into Japan 4. George Soros’ breaking of BOE 5. Paul Tudor Jones’ shorting of Black Monday 6. Andrew Hall’s $100 oil prediction 7. David… Continue reading The Greatest Trades Ever
NFIB – NFIB Jobs Statement: Small Business Hiring Stagnant in December; Likely to Improve in 2011 “Reports of net job creation continued to oscillate around the “0” line in December. Asked about changes in total employment over the last three months, 13 percent of owners reported increasing employment at their firms by an average of… Continue reading Small Company Job Hiring
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The Wall Street Journal – Global Food-Price Index Hits Record A prominent indicator of international food prices hit a record high in December, sounding a warning about looming threats to the world’s poor and to global growth. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s monthly food price index rose for the sixth consecutive month to… Continue reading Food Prices On The Rise
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Loan Growth in U.S. Looks to Course Anew The lifeblood of the U.S. economy is starting to flow again. Until recently, the best that could be said of lending to U.S. businesses was that the declines were slowing. Lately, though, weekly commercial- and industrial-loan… Continue reading Are Businesses Borrowing?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Stampeding bulls could signal correction When everyone thinks the same in financial markets, they are usually wrong. That should be worrying for anyone – me included – who thinks equities are likely to go up this year, as pretty much everyone agrees. Investment newsletters before… Continue reading Everyone’s A Bull These Days
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Another Look at the Surprising ADP Jobs Data ADP, using its payroll data, estimates that the private sector added 297,000 jobs in December. How solid is the ADP report? Well, it certainly is not perfect. Economists use a number of readings to try and triangulate the often-volatile monthly jobs figure. For… Continue reading More On The ADP Report