The MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) reports weekly data on mortgage applications. Despite artificially low interest rates and the lowest real estate prices we’ve seen in years, mortgage applications on new loans are at a 13yr low. In the words of David Rosenberg, Chief Economist for Gluskin-Sheff, “Despite near record-high affordability, people would clearly prefer to [...]
The famed economist Arthur Laffer penned an explosive article for the Wall Street Journal, Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse. The article not only predicts a major downturn for the economy on 1 January 2011, but also explains in depth the fiscal policy decisions which will force this to happen. The entire article is [...]
Over a million Americans are unemployed and having given up hope of finding a job. 1.08 million Americans are officially listed as “discouraged workers”, which means that they have not looked for work in more than four weeks. They have simply given up on finding jobs until the economy recovers. 46% of those without jobs [...]
The DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) dropped 115.48 points to end the day at 9816.49. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 45.27 points to 2173.90. This represents a drop of 1.35% for the Dow and 2.04% for the Nasdaq. The plunge occurred in the absence of any major market news. This is a strong indicator that we [...]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issues a report every month listing the employment statistics of the previous month. These reports are extremely valuable to financial analysts, especially now that the unemployment rate is almost double what it was under the Bush administration. Stocks rise and fall on these numbers, money is made or lost, [...]
This headline almost sounds like it should be published in The Onion, but this is in fact real news. The Iranian government’s official PressTV has announced that the Iranian central bank is selling 45 Billion Euros and replacing them with U.S. Dollars and gold ingots. This clearly means that the mad mullah’s of Tehran believe [...]
