Economy

Are “The Hunger Games” realistic? Yes and there are ample historic examples. The Soviet Union operated on that basic premise for decades.  Specifically various regions (Districts) operating a very monolithic economy with all planning and distribution through a central authority or city (Moscow).  Such a system inherently breaks down if not for the sheer...
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Sometimes just one chart says volumes. I give you the US GDP to US Debt chart. In all it’s glory.
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In a word, No. Because the US has an economy, whereas as one Greek Poltico put it, “all we have is olives, sun and ruins”. But we are in very bad company.  Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain are known as the PIIGS of Europe, economies so bad they are very likely candidates for European...
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Had to happen. Attorney David Anziska tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia that he plans to file class action suits against 20 more law schools in the coming months, and is looking for a global settlement of his allegations that schools misrepresented employment statistics of their graduates. The law schools deny the allegations.
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Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia interviews the former Commissioner of the SEC of the much maligned Dodd-Frank bill. Roberta Karmel told Bloomberg Law on Tuesday that Dodd-Frank financial reform isn’t strong enough to stop another financial crisis. “This is not a recipe for strong regulation,” said Karmel, who is now a professor at Brooklyn Law...
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Greek 1 year bonds hit over 600% yield and are trading as I write (8:30AM) at 583%. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GGGB1YR:IND 2 year Greeks are at 207% down from over 400% earlier this month. The trick is can you collect?  Will the bonds be around long enough for the first dividend? Part of the Euro bailout includes...
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A lot of retirement planning are based on a 7% rate of return.   Especially pension plans that are not subject to change.  With the Federal Government keeping interest rates artificially low these pension plans are having a hard time delivering. Additionally the amount of money that people not on pensions have to save prior to...
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ATMs are running empty and at least 5 buildings are on fire. AP: Riots are spreading across central Athens. Police are shutting down public transportation to prevent protesters from pouring into Athens. Why do I spend so much ink on Greece?  Because it is relevant.  It will affect us.  And I see parallels between...
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If you believe gas consumption is a leading indicator of the economy, we are in for a really bad downturn. Gas consumption is at record lows, the likes of which have not been seen in decades at least not since 1980. From Zerohedge.com What other plausible explanation is there for the decline from 42.4...
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Best explanation I have read yet on why we should watch very closely what happens to Greece.  From the Daily Capitalist. We need to follow Greece because their default and withdrawal from the eurozone would set off major consequences to the European Monetary Union, and thus the EU, that are unforeseeable. A default would...
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Exposing the Student Loan Racket (Infographic) Student loan debt, now at $830 billion, has surpassed credit card debt—a statement not likely to have been heard 20 years ago. Student loans, unlike any other form of debt, CANNOT be forgiven via bankruptcy—these loans MUST be repaid. Is this the next bubble to burst? Personally I...
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By any measure this has been a hard and long recession, and many of us are not convinced it is over.  Particularly worrisome is the millions of men who have dropped off the face of employment statistics.  Men who have just disappeared.  No statistic the Federal Government keeps tracks them.  If they are working...
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Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary (BLS.gov) If you click on the graph to the right and expand or zoom in on Connecticut you can barely see a tiny bit of blue.  That blue represents job growth since the MAX jobs lost point during the 2007 Recession as of this past May 2011. ...
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The U.S. Treasury has been dipping, or as it is also known “disinvesting”, into the G-fund and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF). In a nutshell, since the debt ceiling breach in mid May, Tim Geithner has replaced one IOU (that of the Fed) with another (that of the Treasury) in the...
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From The Zillow Blog: Home values are still falling, but not as quickly as they were late last year. From March to April, the Zillow Home Value Index declined 0.77%, compared with a decline of 0.89% from November to December 2010. While that’s a positive sign, home values are still falling too rapidly for...
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