Homebuying for Investment (Speculation?)

The National Association of Realtors reports that last year, 27.7 percent of all home sales were for investment purposes, while another 12.2 percent were vacation homes.  Read the NAR press release.This is consistent with my …
Read More

Industry Chugging Forward

Industrial production moved forward at a very nice pace last month.  Although the overall figure gets the headline, I prefer to look at manufacturing production.  The total number also includes utilities and mining, and weather …
Read More

Retail Sales Strong

March was a good month for retail sales.  Although car sales helped a lot, most other retail sectors moved forward as well. The weak sectors were electronics retailers and gas stations, the latter because prices …
Read More

Foreign Trade Declined

Most headlines are reading "Foreign Trade DEFICIT Declined," but I’m not very interested in the trade deficit.  It’s hard to see that it’s affecting us much.  After all, the most widely expected result of the …
Read More

Consumers Not Borrowing More

Consumers have leveled off their credit: This series does not include real estate loans; it counts credit cards, car loans, etc.  It appears that consumers are trying to limit their debt (good idea), helped perhaps …
Read More

Investment Returns in First Quarter

The Capital Spectator has a neat chart on first quarter investment returns.  View it here. Although the stock market has looked anemic to my eye, small caps, emerging market and developed country stocks really did …
Read More