The U.S blinked in recent days, preferring to put off until after the November elections the question of whether or not to declare China a “currency manipulator.” Such a move might have been the correct one. What we don’t need at this juncture is a trade war with China. The U.S.-China relationship is unlike any [...]
Archive of entries posted in the year 2010
Steroid Failure
One more time around the dismal American job creation track as employment data continues to disappoint. The combination of massive government spending and unprecedented monetary stimulus has largely failed to ignite the economy Too bad such economic “steroids” have been packaged with the Administration’s anti-business rhetoric and actions of the past two years. The weak [...]
Happy Talk
The “dismal science” of economics typically focuses on “bad” news. We clearly face many significant challenges…no argument here. However, there are also many favorable developments taking place within the U.S. economy. This is our semi-annual update of “Happy Talk.” This Tea Leaf focuses ONLY on the “good” news… Economic output of the average American worker [...]
Observations
Wednesday of this week marks the end of a very busy (and most welcome) period of speaking events…13 presentations in 11 different industries; 24 flights over 20 days; events in nine different states plus Vancouver, BC; with four separate trips to the East Coast…which is not exactly close to my home in northern Utah… Delta [...]
Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…
…more people would recognize that the U.S. recession is over, and companies would begin hiring again …the unique combination of liberals, moderates, and conservatives elected to Congress this November could actually work together to address this nation’s ills …“government” would recognize that it is there to serve the people, and not the other way around [...]
Autumn View
The American Economy …confidence is lacking Most forecasting economists will tell you that the U.S. economy returned to growth about 12-15 months ago…statistically at least, if not emotionally. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the “official” scorekeeper for the American economy, is expected to make that call at any time in coming months. We do [...]
Less “Double Dip”
U.S. employment data remained on the weak side in August. At the same time, revisions to prior data, as well as slightly-stronger-than-expected new information regarding manufacturing, consumer confidence, and retail sales, has lessened talk of another downturn—the infamous double dip—in coming months. The American economy suffered a net loss of 54,000 jobs in August, less [...]
No Confidence
Note the direction of U.S. economic growth during the past few quarters as identified in the quarterly growth chart—from a solid 5.0% real (after inflation) annual rate late last year, to a still respectable 3.7% pace during the winter, to an anemic 1.6% annual rate in the quarter just ended… Observe that the revised 1.6% [...]
Bubble Bonds
One investment “rule of thumb” that has traditionally developed is smaller investors are usually late to the game…and thus expose themselves to higher levels of risk when a market bubble leaks, bleeds, or bursts. Such a time could easily be approaching in regard to the purchase or continuing ownership of bonds. Tens of thousands of [...]
..flation Investing
What’s it gonna be? Inflation or Deflation? Argument #1…Inflation Let me think now…inflation is going to be a huge problem in coming years. Did you see the incredible $1,400,000,000,000 federal budget deficit last year, with the same, or higher, budget deficit this year? Did you see a similar budget deficit projection for next year? Have [...]
Have the Tea Leaf delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.
