Saving Money is Bad for the Economy: Personal Savings Rate Higher, Consumption Slightly Up, Banks get new American Express, and Markets Begging for Money.
Last month the savings rate hit the 5 percent mark. That makes two months over 4 percent and for the first time in a decade that Americans have actually saved more than 4 percent for two consecutive months. Saved 4 percent of what? Of their personal income. You would think that most people would be […]
The Long Depression of 1873: Parallels and Comparisons. Are we Missing Economic Information from an Important Piece of American Financial History?
There have been many comparisons to the Great Depression with our current economic crisis. Massive speculation, rampant problems in the banking system, and exponential jumps in unemployment. Yet we may have a lot to learn by looking at the former Great Depression known as the Long Depression. The Long Depression lasted 65 months starting in […]
The Red, White, and Blue Queen’s Race: The Economy Reverts to Historical Inflation Patterns: Stock Market and Real Estate Fall back in Line with Inflation. Working Harder Just to Stay in the Same Spot.
The Red Queen’s race is a situation that appears in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass where one has to run faster and faster just to remain in the same spot. Imagine a treadmill that increases in speed every 10 minutes yet you don’t burn calories at the higher rate. Many Americans are feeling as if […]
Gas Prices going up and Bailing out a Hedge Fund: Why the Average American is Getting Bailout Fatigue. TALF a bailout for Corporations under guise of Lending for Average Americans.
Most Americans are having a challenging time digesting the bitter fruit of all the financial news coming from Wall Street and D.C. It is hard for many to wrap their brains around what is going on. In fact, today Ben Bernanke just stated that AIG was operating like a hedge fund. Which of course begs […]