consumers

Last night, in an e-mail Yves Smith of naked capitalism pointed out an Op-Ed piece by Meredith Whitney which ran in the Financial Times yesterday. It was a fairly somber and downbeat assessment from an analyst who has proved right on the…

Stephen Roach must feel a certain sense of Schadenfreude because he has been warning since the end of the Technology Bubble that U.S. monetary policy was reckless and would end in a very bad way. The bubble reached heights few anticipated,…

Because I was out of commission pretty much all day on Friday, I haven't been able to crunch the U.S. retail sales numbers until now. But, let me do a recap today and breakdown what these numbers might mean for the U.S. economy. The…

Yesterday, I laid out some of my general thinking on the business cycle and the economy. Obviously, understanding the business cycle is important to economic forecasting and is, therefore, central to personal financial planning, general…

Yesterday, I said that investors would begin to focus on the real economy now that the financial crisis has eased somewhat due to massive government intervention. Today, retail sales figures for September 2008 were released by the United…

Now that policy makers worldwide have finally stepped in to stop the bleeding, we have had a relief rally of monumental proportions. Most global indices were deep into oversold territory, meaning that there was lots of pent-up demand for a…

Tom Toles is absolutely terrific. He captures the mood of the day so well in his cartoons, that it really puts paid to the aphorism that a picture is worth a thousand words.SourceTom Toles Cartoons, Washington Post

The numbers on auto sales were unbelievably bad for September -- Ford down 34%. Honda down 24%, Toyota down 32%, Nissan down 37%. Amazingly, G.M. was at the head of the pack with sales down only 16 percent. (I guess those Escalade Hybrids…

I am not a certified financial planner and therefore, do not give financial advice or investment advice. Anyone looking for financial advice is advised to see a independent certified financial planner to help them with their investments.The…

Apparently, a new market of peer-to-peer lending has popped up , where banks are no longer a part of the lending proposition. Loans are made directly peer-to-peer. Whether this is a reaction to tight credit or some weird new innovation due…