Economy

Boy, we extend an open invitation to any government official to join us as a Decoding Wall St. member free for a week. The lines of questioning and understanding of the broad economy, and the economy’s intricacies, were very painful to listen to at Ben Bernanke’s latest presentation before...

The New York Times’ reporters covering Europe’s financial, social, and political crises continue to channel Berlin and demonstrate an ignorance of economics so profound that it rivals the Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers and columnists. On May 18, 2012 the NYT published “Rising Greek...

According to all accounts, housing inventory is very low. Here in Orange County, California inventory levels are back to numbers last seen in 2005. In fact, in California, housing inventory is so low that the NAR and certain Democratic congressmen are trying to block the government’s REO bulk...

The idea that the very same economic forces that are currently plaguing Greece, et al., are somehow not relevant to the United States' circumstances does not hold water.  As goes the rest of the world, so goes the US.  When we back up far enough, it is clear that money and debt are there to reflect...

Contemplate this chart a bit.     This shows you what the stock market (S&P 500) did, along with the expansion in both GDP and debt (leverage) during that time.  The debt expansion was a geometric series from roughly 1990 forward until it hit the wall in 2007.   It may not be...

Steven J. Davis, Senator McCain's chief economics advisor during his presidential campaign, has written a political hit piece on the man that defeated his candidate. His co-authors were Scott R. Baker and Nicholas Bloom. For the sake of brevity I will refer to the authors as “the authors” or “...

“The kinds of measures they've taken are stopgap, and [akin to] repainting the deck chairs on the Titanic,” says former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson. Johnson, who spoke to Benzinga during a recent interview, says that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) “has become too big to manage.” That is just...

Her pessimism has had quite an impact on the U.S. economy. Can her optimism do the same? Banking analyst Meredith Whitney is making headlines today for her support of the “emerging markets” within the United States. She is particularly intrigued by the agricultural states, noting that China's...

Where have the Democrats been hiding that version of Barack Obama all summer? In a fiery speech before Congress, President Obama laid out an effective, workable jobs plan and demanded (not asked, but demanded) that Congress get off its butt and pass the bill. The attitude change is a far cry from...

Well the leak of a $300B proposal earlier in the week was quite inaccurate, to the tune of over 50% wrong.   While we are not allowed to call it a stimulus because after all stimulus is a bad word, this "don't call it a stimulus" is actually probably a bit bigger on an annual basis than the $862B...