While the media was trumpeting a miss on retail sales, the truth, as usual, was somewhat different than the media message. The major media outlets reported that a 0.1% gain missed analysts’ consensus estimate of a gain of 0.3% for the month of December. As usual, the report was stated in seasonally adjusted terms, which…
Tag Archive for False Impression
Contributors- Economic and Financial, James Howard Kunstler, Must Read
This Ripe Moment
by James Howard Kunstler • • 0 Comments
The narcolepsy of the long Yuletide draws to a close and the world reawakens to its self-spun web of mutually reinforcing fiascos. Just before the holiday, a sense of futility darkened the European banking landscape as cascading sovereign default looked more and more inevitable. It was halted by a bazooka-caliber currency swap Ponzi that allowed the European Central Bank to pretend it had a $700-billion bag of sugar-plums to hand out to more…
Charts, Economics
Economic Charts- Factory Orders, the Stock Market and the Fed
by Lee Adler • • 1 Comment
Economic pundits and the Wall Street captive media are fond of telling people that the stock market is a discounting mechanism and that it leads the economy. I’m just as fond of showing that the market does neither. Both the market and the economy are mechanisms that respond to changes in macro liquidity. The Fed…
Housing, Liquidity Trader Complete, Professional Edition
Pending Home Sales Cow Patties
by Lee Adler • • 2 Comments
Here’s what Bloomberg had to say about this morning’s reported jump in pending home sales (signed sales agreements). Pending sales of U.S. existing houses unexpectedly jumped by a record 10 percent in October, indicating the industry at the center of the last recession is stabilizing as the job market improves. Allow me to phrase this…
Liquidity Trader Complete
Far Goes Katchadakota
by Lee Adler • • 2 Comments
Michael Derby had a piece in the Journal covering Minneapolis Fed Pres Catchadodgedakota saying the new Fed asset buys won’t do much. That’s a misdirection play, because the Fed is already levitating the market with QL 1.5. It is not what or how much the Fed buys that matters. Purchases from Primary Dealers goose the…
