European Central Bank Acts to Stem New Debt Crisis

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 5, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments   One of the massive catalysts for yesterday’s large financial markets fall, which I covered in “Are You Scared of Stock Market Falls,” was the decision Thursday by the European Central Bank to only include the debt of Ireland and Portugal in the European bailout-package-authorized sovereign bond buyback program.  Realizing its mistake, the ECB stated Friday that it would...
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Jobs Growth in U.S. Finally Takes Off

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 5, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments   Department of Labor figures demonstrate that in July jobs growth in the U.S. has finally taken off.  Specifically, the economy added 117,000 non-farm jobs.  This compares to economist expectations of only 75,000 jobs created. By the way, in case you are wondering, the significance of the “non-farm” part is that farm work is seasonal.  By stripping out agricultural jobs you get...
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Are You Scared of Stock Market Falls?

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 4, 2011 in Blog | 4 comments   Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 512.76 points, or 4.31%. This moment of market turbulence is similar to, though not as severe as, the Great Recession’s big market decline of early March 2009.  The primary similarity is that the “mood of the market” is one of nausea and near panic similar in proportion to what it was then. The primary difference is that the...
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Why the Stock Market is Falling

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 3, 2011 in Blog | 2 comments   Here is an overview of some of the dynamics driving the sideways to down stock market this year: Job creation remains anemic in the United States.  Without new jobs there cannot be incremental spending in our consumer driven economy.  Without incremental spending there is no sales growth and therefore no profit growth.  So this is downward pressure on the markets – duh! U.S....
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Consumer Spending Slows

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 2, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments   This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that consumer spending fell 0.2% in June.  Meanwhile, consumer incomes rose 0.1%, and savings rose 5.4%. Analysis: All of these data suggest that the economic “game of chicken” between businesses and consumers that I have been talking about for well over a year is in restoration mode – not a good thing.  Even though...
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Evaluation of U.S. Debt Crisis Deal

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Aug 1, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments   Yesterday saw a deal reached to raise the U.S. debt issuance limit, potentially averting a fiscal crisis.  Here is my evaluation of the U.S. debt crisis deal. Details: Amount of the deal: $2.4 trillion in debt ceiling rise and $2.4 trillion in spending cuts Debt ceiling is lifted in two stages: Stage 1: spending cuts of $917 billion over 10 years Stage 2: a Congressional committee of both...
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U.S. Economy Up or Down?

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Jul 29, 2011 in Blog | 2 comments   One month ago there were simultaneous indications of an accelerating, and slowing, U.S. economy.  Yesterday and today we have a similar situation with an improving jobs situation and a tepid reading on gross domestic product (GDP).  The question: is the U.S. economy heading up or down? First up, yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that weekly initial jobless claims fell by...
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