The Distress Index
I ran across the “Distress Index” today. It’s put out by the Foundation for Economic Education, an outfit I’ve never heard of before. They even have a nice chart showing how their index has performed […]
Read more
I ran across the “Distress Index” today. It’s put out by the Foundation for Economic Education, an outfit I’ve never heard of before. They even have a nice chart showing how their index has performed […]
Read moreThe United States government reported that real Gross Domestic Product increased at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter. Improvements in Consumer Durables consumption, up 22.3 percent, and Residential Fixed […]
Read moreThis recession and its accompanying financial crises started with large financial institutions making headlines with bad loans, liquidity problems, and in many cases insolvency. The driving factors at that point were the toxic residential-real-estate-based securities […]
Read moreReuters has a release of new housing data. Seems sales fell in September and Augusts’ numbers were revised down. I’m amazed at the writer’s confidence that we are in “widening recovery.” The money quotes are […]
Read moreA couple of months ago, on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, I had the opportunity to sit next to an impressive young woman from New Zealand, and we had the type of […]
Read moreI was reviewing new data from DataQuick Information Systems. There were 111,689 California Notices of Default (NODs) during the third quarter. While this is down from 124,562 in the second quarter, it is still an […]
Read moreCalifornia’s jobs report, released Friday the 16th, showed that the California economy is still bumping along the bottom of a serious recession. The various indicators, for the month of September, show only slight improvements over […]
Read moreThe Economic news is mostly negative today with Consumer Confidence dropping below the consensus forecast. MGIC, the nation’s third largest mortgage insurer, posted a third quarter $518 million loss after a record number of homeowners […]
Read moreUnited States third quarter foreclosure rates rose substantially, 23 percent higher than last year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Almost a million homes received a default, auction notice, or were repossessed by banks in 2009 quarter […]
Read moreBy my count, and I could be wrong, 36 Oregon economist signed a letter supporting the Legislature’s tax increases in response to the State’s budget problem. These are the key paragraphs: “ Cutting state spending […]
Read moreJoel Kotkin forwarded this article in the Oregon Environmental News. Seems that baby boomers will retire to rural communities in big numbers, for maybe 15 years. This is likely to be particularly important in Central […]
Read moreTim Herdt has a piece today on the politics of legalizing marijuana: “Forget Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. It says here that the most interesting political issue in California next […]
Read more