Update on economic data

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 23, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Several economic data points have been rolling in over the last several days… New Home Sales: Sales of new single-family homes fell 11.3% in November; the lowest figure since April. Economists had expected a drop of 1.2%. Uh, clearly that’s a lot worse than expected. New home sales are for brand new residences and not used home sales. Analysis: This is clearly not a good figure. In...
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The close of the worst decade for stocks in history

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 21, 2009 in Best of the Blog, Blog | 2 comments Happy solstice folks! This morning’s Wall Street Journal has an article entitled, “Investors Hope the ’10s Beat the ’00s.” The story highlights that the past decade is the very worst decade for stocks in the 200 or so years that their performance has been tracked in the United States. On average, folks lost 0.5% per year in the past decade. This is not a very...
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Incursion by Iran into Iraq

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 19, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Saturday everyone! You may have heard yesterday that a small contingent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps went into Iraqi territory and seized an oil field. Iran is officially denying the story. Meanwhile, the Iraqis first reported, then denied, then re-confirmed the veracity of the incursion. Several U.S. military officials have confirmed the story. So what’s going on?...
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"Let’s placate the public and fake real change," signed: France

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 16, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments France’s Finance Minister announced today that the country will tax bonuses awarded to bank employees 50% in 2010. The bonus tax will only be applied to bonuses greater than 27,500 Euros. I strongly advocate a change in executive compensation, not just in the United States, but in all economies worldwide. Because it is people who are motivated by money that got the world into the global...
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Disgusting executive pay packages

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 15, 2009 in Blog | 1 comment The Wall Street Journal reports this morning about analysis it has conducted regarding the massive disparity in executive pay packages vs. those of regular employees. Specifically the WSJ analysis focused on the guaranteed nature of executive pay packages relative to the un-guaranteed nature of regular employee pay packages. The Journal found that “25% of executives at major U.S. companies...
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Bailout payback

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 15, 2009 in Blog | 1 comment The news has been full of stories about the major U.S. banks paying back their TARP funds. So far all 9 of the massive institutions that have entered negotiations with the U.S. to exit the bailout program. However, over 700 institutions received bailout funds. Ultimately of the over $700 billion that was slated for TARP, only $245 billion has been injected. Right now the U.S. Treasury expects to...
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Beware the adjectives

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 11, 2009 in Best of the Blog, Blog | 9 comments Another Friday, another retail sales report, and another exaggeration from the Wall Street Journal. Beware the adjectives. Here are the facts about retail sales for the month of November… The Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales were up 1.3% in November. This figure was twice what economists had been expecting. Further, the 1.3% rise compares to a (revised down to) 1.1%...
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