Archive for August 12th, 2009

Two Posts That Question Conventional Wisdom

It’s late, I’m tired and in the midst of all sorts of quandaries but I have two excellent blog posts that you must read. Both go against conventional wisdom and both have enough data and reasoned analysis to make you rethink your preconceptions. The first is a part of a four-part series that John Hempton […]

Bottled Water And Other Casualties Of The Recession

It looks like the bottled water industry is one of the casualties of the recession. From the WSJ: Nestle SA, the world’s largest food and beverage group, reported on Wednesday a 3% drop in its first-half profit as it missed sales forecasts and trimmed its outlook, according to MarketWatch. The company’s weakest segment? Its water division, […]

Existing Home Sales Continued To Trend Up In Q2

The NAR is out with some details on second quarter existing home sales. Here is a recap: Sales were up 3.8% Q2 over Q1. Unit sales were 4.76 million units in Q2 versus 4.58 million in Q1. Q2 2009 is 2.9% below Q2 2008. Foreclosures accounted for 36% of sales. Median prices in Q2 versus […]

Taleb: We Aren’t Heading In The Right Direction

Henry Blodget does a nice job of summing up Nasim Taleb’s comments on CNBC this morning regarding the current state of the economy, recovery and efforts to gear up for the future: We’re all in denial We’re replacing private debt with public debt.  We’re not dealing with the cancer in our banking system.  We’re not […]

June Trade Deficit Up Slightly

The US trade deficit increased a bit in June. Generally, the change was regarded as positive as it seems to indicate that demand is picking up globally. The deficit increased to $27 billion from $26 billion in May. Economists had thought it would come in around $28.5 billion. Imports were $152.8 billion while exports clocked […]