Americans are becoming ever more pessimistic about economic conditions.
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined to it second lowest level ever in terms of consumers expectations. Watch the video interview of Lynn Franco to get a more enlightening perspective.
According to the Conference Board’s website:
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “The [...]
Monthly Archives May 2008
Consumer Economic Sentiment
Frederic Mishkin Resignation
The Wall Street Journal and the WSJ Real Time Economics blog reported today that Federal Reserve governor Frederic Mishkin has tendered his resignation and plans to leave the Fed in August.
Now, most average individual investors would say “Who the heck is Frederic Mishkin?”. But, I’m a little different. I know about Frederic Mishkin only because [...]
Market Indecision Revisited
I guess the Weekly Wrap at Briefing.com sums up this week pretty well:
Oil prices came within a hair of $128 this week, industrial production was reported to have declined 0.7% in April, Moody’s expressed new concerns about the financial strength of the bond insurers, Fed Chairman Bernanke said conditions in the financial markets are [...]
Has The Dollar Reached Bottom?
It’s been rumored that the Fed has reached a point were they won’t be lower rates again. “Talk” is that the quick response of the Federal Reserve to lower rates has already done it’s job to stimulate the economy. Now “talk” is focusing on the concern not to lower rates so far as to [...]
Warren Buffett on Relationships
Since I’m on the topic of Warren Buffett, I thought I’d showcase a older video, that may be of him responding to reporter’s persistent questions about his relationships with his (now deceased) wife and Astrid Menks.
But, before viewing this video though, it’s a good idea to gain a greater understanding of WB’s feelings about intrusion [...]
Fed Bailout Consequences
Speaking of Warren Buffett..
According to the Reuter’s article “Buffett says Fed avoided chaos in Bear bailout”, WB is to have said:
“I think the Fed did the right thing in stepping in on Bear Stearns,” Buffett said at the annual meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. insurance and investment company. “Just imagine the thousands of counterparties [...]
Will More Regulation Help?
Ever since the Bears Stearns intervention by the Fed earlier this year, there’s been more call for regulation of hedge funds and investment banks.
According to some of those regulation proponents, the credit crisis could have been averted if there had more oversight of the complex derivative instruments that led to the subprime fiasco. Even former [...]