BLS : The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) decreased 1.9 percent in November, before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of ...

Great recap of the Muni market and its anomalies over at The Bond Tangent . One story he posts to from The Bond Buyer : discusses some ano...

Source: Federal Reserve

WSJ : Production by U.S. industries retreated in November, with a range of sectors suffering declines in output. Industrial production decre...

For a good Madoff conspiracy story, check out The Big Picture , but it the meanwhile we're up to $24.1B and counting of Madoff related l...

Scam Mets Owner Scammed for $300mm $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme... We've Hit a New Low Economic Data Inventory to Sales Ratio on the Rise W...

Apparently Fred Wilpon, owner of MY New York Mets, was involved in the Madoff scam. According to Dealbook (hat tip Dom): Sterling Equities...

Although inventories are in some cases down year to year, the 'Inventory to Sales' ratio has increased rather dramatically in recent...

The recent prints in the chart below are from the quarter ending September. Things have deteriorated significantly in the credit markets sin...

Source: Census

Source: BLS

The financial community has hit a new low. WSJ reports: The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Madoff ...

UPDATE... " pre-mature " reporting on my part (hat tip Naked Capitalism ). Apparently there will be no deal: From the Washingto...

The BEA reported: In October, the goods deficit increased $0.3 billion from September to $69.8 billion, and the services surplus decreased ...

MarketWatch reports: The U.S. federal government deficit soared again in November to $164.4 billion, the Treasury Department reported Wedne...

I am / will be traveling and likely unable to post more than here or there the next few days...

California has seen unemployment rocket to 8%+ in recent months as the state was the center of the housing boom and current bust. The wide d...

Across the Curve details investors PAID THE GOVERNMENT TO BORROW FROM THEM, again investors PAID THE GOVERNMENT TO BORROW FROM THEM. New Ec...

A delayed data point from last week. Bloomberg reported: The pace of borrowing by U.S. consumers dropped in October for the second time in ...

T-Bills practically yield nothing and moving out along the curve we see a similar flight to the quality of Treasuries. However, real yields...

0.005% on T-Bills is low. How low? So low that the WSJ tries to grasp just how low, but reports a return figure that is incorrect by a fact...

Naked Capitalism reports : We have long advocated mortgage modifications as a remedy that banks used fairly freely in the stone ages when th...

A lot has been discussed of late as to type of impact the global slowdown will have on both exports and the dollar. The thought is that the...

We detailed in a prior post how large a stimulus package would need to be based on certain assumptions in unemployment and the multiplier (...

Per Bloomberg : Lawmakers are putting together a $15 billion plan intended to help keep GM and Chrysler afloat and negotiations are underway...

Opinion Pension Plans, the Equity Market, and Irrational Behavior Why 'Expected Deflation' Can Be a Good Thing Economic Data Jobs: J...

Source: BarCap

Finally, some good news (although good, for the wrong reason --- no demand). Per the AP (bold mine): The unprecedented decline in energy pr...

I received a few requests asking that I consolidate the employment posts. Here you go: Job Creation: Last Two Presidencies Broader Unemploym...

As John writes in the comments: Economic cycles do not begin and end merely because a president (or prime minister or king or dictator or po...

Source: BLS

Source: BLS

The Birth Death Model once again overstates employment. In other words, things are a lot worse than the 6.7% rate presented to us. Per The ...

Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-533,000) in November, andthe unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7 percent, the Bureau of LaborSt...

Source: Josh Reviews Everything

Source: Census

Apparently moving "higher-end" to Walmart hasn't paid off in recent months for Target. Source: WSJ

Source: BEA

England cut rates a full 100 bps. According to the Bank of England this was done The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today vote...

JJStein asks for it , JJStein gets it... WWII's inflation adjusted cost added to the ' Chart of the Week ': For a breakdown of t...

And it may get worse ( The Harvard Crimson ): The estimate of 22 percent may not fully capture the actual losses from this period, Forst sai...

We already looked at the awful number from the manufacturing survey earlier in the week, now we look at services... and it ain't pretty ...

Interesting post over at Dr. Housing Bubble about the Dow, California budget, economy, and housing market (quite a post!). I'll stick t...