Bailout funds paid back by B of A

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 3, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Good morning folks! Yesterday afternoon Bank of America announced that it was going to be paying back $45 billion of the TARP funds received from the Federal government over the last year. More importantly $18.8 billion of the payback figure is to be raised by B of A selling securities. Why this is important: For Bank of America to pay these funds back is a sign that the U.S. financial industry...
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Lost jobs number negative, but improving

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 2, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments November saw the U.S. shed 169,000 jobs according to payroll firm ADP. The pace of job loss is slowing, however, the number lost last month still exceeded expectations by 19,000. ADP’s number is not the official Federal number, that number comes out on Fridays. But nonetheless, the national data and the ADP data show the same thing: a slowing down in business firings. A Couple of Points:...
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Potential grim foreboding on unemployment

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Dec 1, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments A Wall Street Journal article this morning makes an important point. As a part of the economic-stimulus enacted earlier this year, highway construction firms received numerous small projects to employ construction workers. In my travels around the country, and here in my hometown of Santa Fe, I have seen numerous projects funded in by the stimulus package. They are recognizable by the signs...
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Black friday disappoints

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Nov 29, 2009 in Blog | 1 comment As many of you may know the Friday after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday by the retail industry, is almost always the busiest shopping day of the year. Revenue results from Black Friday are a harbinger for the health of Holiday sales. And this year they are also a harbinger of the health of 70% of the economy in the form of consumer spending. So what are the early returns saying? The early...
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Crazy Iranians at it again

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Nov 29, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments I hope that everyone had a nice Holiday. CNN this morning is reporting that Iran’s cabinet has authorized the construction of another 10 uranium enrichment plants. The Iranians are claiming that the plants are for a civilian-only nuclear program. There are several implications of this announcement… Implication 1: The Iranians clearly do not respect President Barack Obama and have...
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Refreshing economic news

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Nov 25, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Thanksgiving eve folks! There is a lot of economic data today, here are the major stats… Consumer Spending: That ultimate bellwether in economic growth, consumer spending, was up 0.7% in October. This number is made more positive because spending in September had been down 0.6%. More importantly, the annual growth rate of consumer spending in October was 2.9%. While less than the...
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Courting Germany to court Russia

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Nov 24, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Let’s adjust context for a moment from the economy and financial markets back to the topic of Iran’s nuclear program. Germany’s Foreign Minister is currently in Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Germany has long been the one European nation that consistently has political and business...
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