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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Short Economic Stories January 28 2012

In the US: •The Fed announced it plans to leave short term interest rates in the current 0 – 0.25% range until late in 2014. And an explicit 2% inflation target was set. •Bond markets are interpreting the news something along these lines: the economy is sufficiently weak and likely to remain that way for several years. So the Fed is going to commit […] Read the rest of this entry »

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Short Economic Stories Jan 21 2012

Big Picture: Warning: The mini greedometer (tactical risk indicator) is displaying readings previously only seen when the S&P500 was within 5% of a secular (long term) top. The greedometer (strategic risk indicator) is approaching dangerous risk levels as well. There is very little upside and a great deal of downside to risk assets (stocks, junk bonds, commodities, REITs) at this time. A much more […] Read the rest of this entry »

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Short Economic Stories

Big Picture: The balance sheet recession continues here in the US, and in Japan and Europe. As Reinhart & Rogoff suggested in their book – This Time Is Different – we can expect recessions to come more frequently and economic growth to be more shallow than we’ve come to expect over the past several decades. The greedometer and mini greedometer are showing some very […] Read the rest of this entry »

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Short Economic Stories

  (with thanks to the Financial Times for this) 2012 began with a bang. The first day of trading saw some of the largest gains for a first day of the year in decades. Too bad all those gains occurred before markets opened on Tuesday. Indeed the entire US stock market gain for the week happened before the 9:30am opening bell on Tuesday (no, of course this game is not […] Read the rest of this entry »

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Year End Letter 2011 (& 2012 Forecast)

Strategic Indicator:  Greedometer Last week, the greedometer registered 5400 rpm, a respectable but not unexpected jump from the previous week 4800rpm. And with that, we have the end of the year-end rise in the greedometer.  The 2011 set of greedometer readings resemble that of 2007. Indeed, both years saw the last or second to last week finish with a 5400rpm reading. Uncanny.  And foreboding.   (the […] Read the rest of this entry »

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