The interpolation interpretation

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 11, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Yesterday saw one of the strangest events of recent memory: U.S. President Barack Obama accepting the Nobel Peace Prize while simultaneously upping the pressure in the war in Afghanistan. Tell me that’s not weird. And I really like B.O. – the President. But nonetheless something smelled funny. What? Specifically Obama focused on his efforts as President at nuclear non-proliferation....
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Downward revision of Japanese GDP

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 10, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Yesterday Japan revised its third quarter GDP down to 1.3% growth. Previously growth had been pegged at 4.8%. That is a reduction of 72.9%! Clearly that is a gigantic revision. So what does it all mean? To me this suggests that the worldwide economic recovery is still shaky. Improving, but shaky. Kind of like the week after the worst of flu symptoms abate. Because GDP figures are always...
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Soap opera continues…

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 10, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Thursday folks! I write this from a Starbucks in Littleton, Colorado. Though I am traveling I am still on top of things for everyone. Today’s post is an update of the Iranigans situation. Though there has not been much noise about Iran in the last 3 weeks, there is still a lot going on. For example… Israel Israel is laying the groundwork for a military strike against Iran. I...
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Bank cash infusion issue heats up in China

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 8, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments From (brrrr) chilly Denver… The major Chinese economic conference wrapped up yesterday with the Communist government of that nation setting goals for the nation. Specifically it was decided at the Central Economic Work Conference that the nation needed to focus on: increasing domestic consumer consumption; reducing reliance on exports; closing the gap between the earnings of urban and...
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Unemployment rate drops?

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 4, 2009 in Blog | 3 comments Happy Friday! For today’s post let’s begin with the following quote from the Wall Street Journal: “U.S. job losses in November posted the smallest drop since the start of the recession and the unemployment rate unexpectedly declined, a sign the labor market is finally healing as the economy recovers. “Nonfarm payrolls fell by just 11,000 last month, slowing down from a...
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Lower retail sales in November

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 3, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Thomson Reuters reports that November sales in the U.S. were about breakeven with last year’s November sales. Unfortunately November 2008’s sales were 7.8% below those of November 2007’s sales. Ouch! In other words, retailers are hemorrhaging. Additionally, the day after Thanksgiving results, alias Black Friday (what a stupid name), were 7.9% below last year’s very tepid...
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Official unemployment claims improve, but…

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 3, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Earlier this week I reported the unemployment picture as calculated by ADP, the nation’s largest payroll firm. Today the U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 457,000. This marks the 5th week in a row that claims have fallen. The four week moving average is a decline of 14,250 to 481,250. That figure represents the lowest since November of last...
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