This wikizine focuses on the U.S. economy, including the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ stock markets, industry sector trends, large capitalization U.S. companies, and the U.S. macroeconomic climate. Other topics include economic...
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This wikizine focuses on the U.S. economy, including the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ stock markets, industry sector trends, large capitalization U.S. companies, and the U.S. macroeconomic climate. Other topics include economic growth, employment, capital allocations, Federal Reserve monetary policy, tax policies, energy and environment, and other issues related to the overall U.S. economy.
This popular Zimbio wikizine is edited by Michael Johns, an industry executive, former White House Presidential aide, and conservative policy analyst, blog author and financial writer, along with other Zimbio contributors with credentials in various aspects of the American economy.
Topics not to be included in this page include references to small companies (less than $1 billion revenue) or thinly-traded stocks (including, for instance, all OTC stocks) since the goal is to provide an overview of the U.S. economy and its major components and not to impact market or trading trends in any significant way.
Forget the bank stress test , leaked in carefully monitored drips, so that investors and the public will actually think the financial system is in good shape because "only" ten of the major banks need to raise additional capital (to the tune of $75 billion) inorder to theoretically survive in an economy with an unemployment rate which we may hit by the end of the month. The real story is in Treasuries . The market has now pushed the yield rate on ten year notes to 3.34 and they are easily... Read Full Story
Why is it that conventional wisdom is so often wrong? Perhaps part of it is because we are intellectually lazy , and it is just easier to defer to the voices of the loudest—especially if they are saying something we want to be true. But, I just wish I had a dollar in my thong for every time I've heard a pundit, anchor, commentator, politician, expert panelist or the President of the United States say that all economists , regardless of their political or ideological persuasion, agrees that... Read Full Story
As we peer out through the swirling dust of the shitstorms , it is clear we have entered a strange world where left is right, and right is left, up is down and most people don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. The Democrats are the New Hoovers , and Vladimir Putin is a libertarian free markete r. Although, during the primaries, the Democratic presidential candidates yacked it up in Ohio and Indiana , I assumed all their talk of economic protectionism , and scraping NAFTA , was just... Read Full Story
After the Chief Justice flubbed the only thing he had to do today—administer the oath of office to the president , which is one of the better known parts of the constitution — Barack Obama gave his inaugural speech . For one of the great orators of his generation it was not his best, but one would not have thought it was so bad that the stock market would tumble as he spoke. But it did --and ended up tanking by more than 300 points. The economy is so sick, that it is no longer even... Read Full Story
This ain't your grandfather's Depression . Lake Havasu , Arizona , known mostly for drinking, boating, Spring Break, and girls gone wild, is also the home of London Bridge . Although there are often London Bridges falling down in Lake Havasu , the out-of-place structure is not one of them. However it has developed a few sunspots since being reconstructed in the desert. The mayor is requesting that the federal government send them $250.000 as part of the stimulus package , which will be used... Read Full Story
President Obama now has the $787 billion stimulus package in hand. The Secretary of the Treasury has announced, nerdy beady eyes darting, his plan to take the $350 billion remaining of the TARP funds -- buy up some T-bills , and then join the other bedraggled financial titans meeting with Ben Benanke in a back alley for a dirty transaction--- and getting a brown paper bag filled with trillions of freshly printed dollars . Even though I have an expired Series 7 license , I don't give... Read Full Story
I see the cutest, angriest Filipino neocon in America, Michelle Malkin , is getting pretty stoked up about Rick Santelli's spaz attack on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange calling for a Chicago Tea Party : There is actually a whole lot of this going on , even up in my old home state, the Soviet of Washington --- land of latte, Marx lite and highly caffeinated Birkenstock hippies. But--welcome aboard Michelle , M r. Santelli and the rest of you born again economists . Just wish you... Read Full Story
It's one thing to tell someone all they have to fear is fear itself—but generally that chipper ass has not seen half of their life savings dissipate in six months, nor are they ever found in the unemployment line . We are all in grieving mode , and at that stage of denial where it seems possible that the housing market might come roaring back if not next quarter, than the quarter after—surely by next year--and then the heady spendthrift days of the George Bush Era will be back. However... Read Full Story
Am I crazy, or the last sane person standing? Recently I read one of those puff pieces in the business section of the local paper. A stock pimp was trying to drum up business, by encouraging people to consider investing in the commodity markets . He shared a cute cautionary tale. One time he had to call up one of the johns and let him know that he better sell his pork bellies real quick, because they were due to be delivered the next day. Apparently, the crafty speculator did not have the... Read Full Story
Are you concerned about the state of the U.S. economy? If you are, then consider the findings of a recent article in the American Journal of Medicine (among multiple other sources), which reports that medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. If you are like most Americans, you live one medical disaster away from poverty. What's worse, many of those who have unwillingly found themselves sunk in such debt had health insurance. The Washington Post points out that of those who were... Read Full Story
