A shift by Russia seems to be brewing

by | 10 11 2009 | Blog

After spending almost all of 2009 badgering each other over the Iran issue, Russia and the United States seem to be easing tensions between themselves. Yesterday was quite an interesting day in the Iran nuclear issue. Let’s review what happened… Iran...

Nuclear non-proliferation non-cooperation

by | 09 11 2009 | Blog

Hello everyone. I hope that each of you had a nice weekend. Today I want to update everyone on what is happening with the Iran nuclear crisis as there are some new developments. Development #1: The Iranian government has rejected a deal it just made with the P5+1...

An observation

by | 06 11 2009 | Blog

Have you noticed that when there is good news on unemployment that the financial markets soar? Have you noticed when there is bad news on unemployment the financial markets fall? While this correlation may seem obvious, there is an important implication. The news flow...

Juiced juice

by | 06 11 2009 | Blog

Happy Friday! That all important indicator of consumer confidence is seeing increased demand for its juice: Starbucks. I do consider this to be a strong indicator that consumers are starting to put their toes back into the spending (flavored brown) waters. As each of...

Up, up and away!?

by | 05 11 2009 | Blog

Last week saw initial jobless claims fall 20,000 to a level of 512,000. The 512K is the lowest number of filings since January of this year. Remember that this data is always estimated (look at how round the figures are) and hence, very volatile. In fact, the data are...

A private measure of unemployment is no better

by | 04 11 2009 | Blog

Good morning everyone! ADP, processor of almost everyone’s pay check, has its own private data on unemployment. The number of jobs shed in October by their reckoning was 203,000. One of the primary differences in the ADP survey and the Bureau of Labor...