Nervous about being nervous

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 17, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Right now as an investor I am nervous about being nervous.  What makes me nervous is that huge drop in Consumer Confidence in February.  I am also nervous that the “positive” economic data that keeps coming is barely positive.  In other words, it looks and feels to me like the economy is treading water without definitive, strong movement in either direction.  But being this nervous...
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The end of the Fed’s buying of Mortgage Backed Securities

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 17, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Late last night the Federal Reserve announced that it was going to be ending one of its primary recessionary supports of the U.S. economy: the purchasing of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS).  More importantly, the Fed said that it was planning to end the program because the economy was growing, credit markets were normalizing and that inflation remained in check.  The Federal Reserve has its...
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Let the populist political fires rise

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 14, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Sunday to each of you! On Thursday U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech to the U.S. Export-Import Bank.  Specifically he talked about a plan entitled, “National Export Initiative.”  In short, its primary goal is to double U.S. exports by 2015.  A secondary goal is to create 2 million U.S. jobs.  The tactics employed to accomplish this are to create an “Export...
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Guess what Lehman Brothers? You screwed up

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 12, 2010 in Blog | 1 comment Today the business news outlets are running wild with a report by a U.S. bankruptcy court examiner that lambasts Lehman Brothers.  The report holds Lehman Brothers, its executives and its auditor Ernst & Young responsible for the firm’s collapse. Most scathing of all, the report details the ways in which Lehman executives manipulated the firm’s financial statements, lied about...
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Pale sales

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 12, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments This morning U.S. retail sales figures for the month of February were published by the Commerce Department.  The data show that sales were up 0.3% vs. an expected decline of 0.3%.  Interestingly, January’s retail sales figures, originally reported as being up 0.5%, were revised to only being up 0.1%. Analysis: Certainly a rise in retail sales is a good sign.  However, a 0.3% rise...
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Financial overhaul bill

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 11, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Christopher Dodd, a Senate Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is set to introduce the Senate version of a financial overhaul bill passed in the House of Representatives in December.  Dating back to some of the original postings I made on this blog, in order for there to NOT be another financial crisis of similar proportion to the one that the U.S. and the...
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Net export number improves, but…

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Mar 11, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments In case you are new to the blog, let me repeat a formula that I use frequently.  Gross Domestic Product, alias the economy, is measured as: Consumer spending + Investments by businesses + Government spending + eXports, net.  In other words, GDP = C + I + G + X. Today the January net exports number was reported by the U.S. Commerce Department.  Specifically, the trade deficit declined $2.61...
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