The Big Picture |
- Dollar Threat to Prosperity ?
- Thursday Instapaper Reads
- Save the Date: Ben to Hold Regular Pressers
- Read it here First: Prices of Gallons
- Gold touches record high, nominal vs real gains
- Laszlo Birinyi: Market Is Only Halfway Through Bull Run
- Comparing Housing Prices, Real vs Nominal (1890-2011)
- Jim Flora: Money Flow
- Portugal “Crisis” — 5 Year Yield Spread
- The Bull, the Bear and Candy Bars
| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:00 AM PDT How to save King Dollar, and its impact on oil and food prices, with Steve Forbes, Forbes Media, and David Gilmore, Foreign Exchange Analytics. Airtime: Tues. Mar. 22 2011 | 7:15 PM ET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Mar 2011 01:45 PM PDT Here are some of the more interesting I am reading:
What are you reading? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Save the Date: Ben to Hold Regular Pressers Posted: 24 Mar 2011 01:00 PM PDT In a move that I think is long overdue, the Fed announced that chairman Ben Bernanke will hold press briefings four times per year:
To the extent this will provide clarity to the Fed’s policy statement and reduce the guesswork involved in deciphering it, I believe this is a very positive development. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Read it here First: Prices of Gallons Posted: 24 Mar 2011 11:30 AM PDT Back in 2005, I posted this table on Cheap Gas vs other items; it contained the following table:
Originally published at The Big Picture, March 31 2005 There have been several new variations of this recently, including this version from Good: >
> Hat tip Flowing Data | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold touches record high, nominal vs real gains Posted: 24 Mar 2011 10:46 AM PDT On the day gold hits an all time high and with 3 months to go before the Fed ends its latest attempt to help the economy, let’s look at the rise in the asset class the Fed admits they are trying to goose, stocks, and compare with the two asset classes they say they have nothing to do with, commodities and currencies. Since Bernanke gave his Jackson Hole speech, the S&P 500 is up 25% but in gold, commodity and other currency terms, the gains look not as good. In gold terms, stocks are up just 6.6%, in oil they are down 13.6%, in CRB terms they are down 8%, in Euro’s they are up 11.8%, in CAD up by 15%, in AUD up by 8.5%, in CHF up by 10.5% and in yen up by 19.5%. I make this analysis to point out the nominal world the Fed is trying to jump start to deal with too much leverage in our economy where in reality, REAL gains are the only thing that helps a country’s standard of living. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laszlo Birinyi: Market Is Only Halfway Through Bull Run Posted: 24 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT The markets are still digesting the fallout from the disaster in Japan, with Laszlo Birinyi Jr., Birinyi Associates
~~~ Source: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comparing Housing Prices, Real vs Nominal (1890-2011) Posted: 24 Mar 2011 08:30 AM PDT Following the record low data in New Home Sales yesterday, we looked at a 50 year chart of that plumbed the depths of that data series. Today, I want to expand upon that and look at a 120 year chart of real vs. nominal home prices, via Visualizing Economics. There are a few noteworthy items on the chart: The Great Depression saw Housing prices collapse, but in real terms the price of housing had been slowing for a while (for many reasons). The GI Bill, post WW2 boom, the widespread ownership of automobiles saw the growth of the suburbs and a major housing boom. In nominal terms housing prices began to rise above trend levels in the 1980s, and then in the late 1990s saw some additional price gains as profits rotated from equities to residential RE. In both real and nominal terms, the 2000s saw home prices go ballistic. > click for ginormous chart | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Mar 2011 07:33 AM PDT As a longstanding Jazz fan, I have been enamored of Jim Flora’s work for some time (eg, this and this) . His work is bright and lively and full of life — perfect for all of those Jazz album covers he did in the 1950s and 60s. I suspect that many of his fans did not know he did illustrations for business publications as well. When Irwin Chusid (who handles the art archive for the Flora estate) showed me this illustration “Money Flow,” I was thrilled. It was created for the 1964 December Fortune, and though it was supposed to show complexity and complications of national money flow, in light of what’s happened recently, it seems almost quaint in comparison. (I just redid my study where I do my writing, the walls were calling out for a splash of color). Money Flowclick for larger delightful artwork; (ginormous version here) Info about the work and artist appear after the jump Anyone wanting more info about Flora and his works should contact Irwin Chusid (either here or at info@jimflora.com, who manages the portfolio of work for the Flora Estate.
Originally appeared in Fortune, December 1964 article: “The Next Turn in Taxes” The work was purchased from the estate of James (Jim) Flora (1914-1998) Flora rendered dozens of topical illustrations for Fortune during the 1950s and 1960s. Many originals remain in the family collection and are for sale. Backstory:
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| Portugal “Crisis” — 5 Year Yield Spread Posted: 24 Mar 2011 07:06 AM PDT
> • BusinessWeek – Portugal's Bonds Slump as Prime Minister Quits Over Budget Cuts Portuguese bonds led a slide by securities of the most indebted European nations as the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates fuelled concern the southern European country may need a bailout. Two-year Portuguese yields reached the highest since 1999. Spanish bonds fell as Moody's Investors Service cut credit ratings on 30 of the country's lenders. European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels today to seek a solution to the debt crisis that forced Greece and Ireland to seek financial aid. Irish bonds slumped as LCH Clearnet Ltd. said it will increase the extra deposit required for clients to trade the securities. Socrates's resignation is "another nail in the coffin in terms of a bailout package," said David Schnautz, a fixed- income strategist at Commerzbank AG in London. "In terms of Ireland, Greece and Portugal, this may be another underlying burdening factor. It doesn't seem to be the case that you can say that the possibility of default is off the table." • The Wall Street Journal – Portugal Crisis Overshadows EU Summit The collapse of Portugal's government and disagreement over financing the region's bailout funds threaten to overshadow a key summit meeting of European Union leaders beginning Thursday. The two-day summit—the culmination of a string of meetings across the continent in recent weeks between leaders and finance officials—has been seen as a key chance for the region to turn its back on the debt crisis by embracing deep reforms. But political turmoil in Portugal has added a new stumbling block. Portugal's parliament late Wednesday rejected a new government austerity plan, prompting Prime Minister José Socrates to submit his resignation and setting off a new phase in Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. The failure to pass the measure threatened to push already-high government borrowing costs to unaffordable levels and force Lisbon to seek a bailout. The extra yield demanded by investors to hold 10-year Portuguese bonds instead of haven German bunds widened by 0.1 percentage points to 4.52 percentage points. If Portugal does seek a bailout, it would be the third euro-zone member to turn to other members of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, after Greece and Ireland went first. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Bull, the Bear and Candy Bars Posted: 24 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PDT ~~~ Source: |
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