Monthly Archives: December 2006

New foreclosure data for November is out, California in particular is fading fast. In addition, California home sales were down 22.2% y-o-y during November. They are starting to face easier comparisons. The Unsold Inventory Index rose to 7.4 months, up from October’s 7.2 and the year earlier period’s 3.6 months. IRVINE, CA - RealtyTrac™ released...
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My mother-in-law, who is 74 and lives in Quebec, was on the way home from a bus tour of the western US when she suffered a burst aortic aneurysm near Battle Creek, MI. She was rushed to Battle Creek Hospital. They told us to prepare for the worst, that it was, in essence hopeless....
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“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. - Joseph Goebbels Increasingly as government releases become all but worthless,...
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The Fed is in the midst of making its final push to the top of the 5% growth channel for 2006. In the end, their pattern for this year’s holiday season varied on slightly from previous years. The end result was the same—a massive 30 day add to the liquidity pool that managed to...
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I track liquidity, but it has nothing to do with economic fundamentals. I track newly created liquidity as it is flowing into markets, which is the primary action of liquidity. Liquidity is created. It flows into and between markets, and when on those rare occasions it is destroyed, it disappears via the market. These...
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One of the stunners I have pointed to of late is the enormous pick up in foreign central bank (FCB) purchases of US securities, especially agencies. The question as to who is doing this and why is a challenging one. And the answer as you will see, is once again perverse. Other than custodial...
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The charts show the status of 19 large cap bellwether stocks in a representative sampling of leading industry groups. The charts include 13-week cycle centered moving average projections (or 6-7 week if the 13 week cycle projection is not available). These projections are meant to be guides only. They are moving targets, and can...
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The latest in misconceived bullish theories to come down the pike, was espoused in this week’s Barrons, by GaveKal. A centerpiece of their theory is the “net worth” of American “households”, derived from the Federal Reserve Z1 report. In 3Q, 2006 the Fed reported that US households held $67.1 trillion in assets against liabilities...
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First off I wish my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years in the traditional sense. What do I mean by traditional sense? I mean enjoy the holiday trappings in the old fashion way, go Christmas choiring, visit with the family, eat turkey, enjoy a nice tree. And that’s about all you’ll get...
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One of the maladjustments that occurs in Bubble economies where Riskloves and speculators lead the “buy everything” charge are distortions in inventories and prices. In this case, the cause of high prices often ends up in large measure being speculative and are set at the margin by Riskloves. This in turn gives real economy...
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I watched an interview on CNBC that kind of says it all about financial news coverage. I am sure you will winch when you watch it. The discussion centered around the Center for Responsible Lending’s study that expects one in five subprime loans to go into foreclosure. Readers of this blog ought to be...
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New Wall Street Examiner podcast is out. My contributions: what was the Thailand situation all about, the extent and magnitude of the massive pump and dump transfer of wealth to plutocrats, and the ultimate question: what would Gordon Gekko want his minions to do now? The answer to the last question (pull the plug,...
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