Standard and Poor’s changed the outlook for the US credit rating to negative last week but stocks managed to shrug off the obvious and end the week in positive fashion. S&P doesn’t quite have the credibility it once had after blessing the mortgage dreck of Wall Street with AAA ratings during the housing boom, but [...]
Having largely missed the last two bubbles, the popular press is on a mission to get the scoop on the next one. If you believe the press we now have bubbles in social networking stocks, commodities, gold, silver, oil, Chinese real estate, Australian real estate, US farmland, junk bonds, US stocks and emerging market stocks, [...]
Last week’s economic data continued the recent pattern of the recovery. Manufacturing remains strong, inflation is rising, housing is weak and employment remains a major issue. The economy is continuing to slowly recover but there is no sign of an acceleration that is sorely needed to reduce the unemployment rate. I suspect the next few [...]
Say I told you that the US stock market’s price-to-earnings ratio is over 40% above its long-term historical average. At what point in the last 100 years would you think that this applied to? For sure in the late 20’s, right before the stock market crash and subsequent Great Depression. How about the mid-60’s, prior to the Dow Jones [...]
