The housing market is one of the leading indicators of economic activity, and the US market is suffering its longest slump in four years. Sales of previously owned homes fell 3.4% in September from August and were down 4.1% from last year, for the seventh straight month of declines.
The stock markets seem oblivious to the Fed’s stated objective of higher interest rates, with some major averages making new highs and other just shy of new highs. However, some segments of the economy are already being impacted by higher rates, namely the housing market. Across the nation, home sales have declined four months in
Excesses are signs of economic tops. They readily appear in stocks, real estate, and art. If inflation is running amuck, gold and silver can see excesses. Right now, though, we can be certain that there are no excesses in the metals.
Listening to analysts and economists who are frequent guests on financial programs, you might conclude that higher interest rates — which the Fed is imposing — will be good for the economy. No, they won’t.
Several renown investment advisors are calling a bubble in stocks. Yet few Americans seem to care what people with hugely successful track records are saying. Stocks are going up, why not get on board?
It’s really quite amazing to see the economic fallacies that are trotted out in support of the central banking/fiat money meme. This recent one attempts to blame rising wealth inequality and economic stagnation on the proliferation of robots in manufacturing and automation in general: The alarm over machines posing a real risk to jobs has
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner can’t sell his house. Maybe it because he is asking more than the $1.6 million that he paid in 2004 at the top of the housing boom. Housing prices are down, on average, 30% from the 2004 top. Any doubt but that some wealthy person seeking to curry a favor with
The Austrian School is probably best known for its condemnation of government intervention in the marketplace. Interest rates, for example, should be determined by the supply of money available to be lent and the number of qualified persons seeking to borrow. But, no, what do we have: Government rules and regulations that require lenders to have loan