The WSJ is out with some more data that shows consumers have no intention of buying anything more than the essentials: From the Journal: Major retailers reported that American consumers are continuing to hunker down, casting a cloud over the durability of the U.S. recovery and underscoring the importance of overseas demand in restoring the […]
Archive for August 18th, 2009
Bronte Capital: Why Fannie And Freddie Are Viable
A week or so ago I put up a link to John Hempton’s initial analysis of Fannie and Freddie. At that time I said it was to be a four part series and John commented to me that it would likely be longer than that. Indeed, he is now up to six separate posts on […]
Vegas Bets On American Consumption
There’s one group of people who scoff at the idea of the “new normal” and Joel Stein does a marvelous job of profiling them in his article in Time about Las Vegas. The article is a bit long but fantastic. Stein paints a great picture of the devestation that has been wreaked on the Vegas […]
Manhattan Office Values Crater
Bloomberg has a short article that notes commercial real estate deals in Manhattan have come to a halt. They quote CB Richard Ellis statistics that show three buildings changed hands in the first six months of the year versus an average of 32. The article cites a lack of financing as one of the obstacles […]
Little Comfort In Housing Starts And Wholesale Prices
A little deflation and some tepid news on new home construction constitute the economic news of the day. Wholesale Prices Producer Prices slipped 0.9% after 3 months of increases. The core rate, ex food and energy, was down 0.1%. The decline was spread pretty uniformly across all sectors suggesting that demand remains weak. Excess capacity […]