GDP grew 3.5% in the third quarter of this year, exceeding expectations of 3.2% and sending the markets up nicely after a week-long downturn…then back down, and then…is the recession over? Well…maybe. In digging into the GDP numbers more deeply it becomes a more complicated story. Consumer spending was up 3.4%, but this was largely driven…
Everything was going so nicely, then it dropped off a cliff. Yesterday the market was heading for nice gain in response to a blowout quarter from Wells Fargo among other positive earnings reports. Thus far 76% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported have beaten expectations for Q3 earnings. Then out of nowhere, we…
The gloves are off now. Our President has called those who oppose the current health care bills liars, and of course there is the now-infamous South Carolina congressman who lobbed the accusation at President Obama himself. I thought one was supposed to refrain from such lack of civility, but since it seems to be all…
We are in the midst of a new gold rush. Gold briefly went over $1,000 per ounce and is still hovering at those levels. Everywhere you look, you find someone pushing gold and other “inflation hedges” as they preach the gospel of runaway inflation. There is one minor problem with their gloom and doom inflation…
Yesterday President Obama officially announced that he would nominate Ben Bernanke for a second term as the Chairman of The Federal Reserve. “Ben Bernanke has led the Fed through the one of the worst financial crises that this nation and this world have ever faced,” Obama said from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., as Bernanke stood by…
