RepStreet » Economy

10 Countries that will survive the credit meltdown of next year.

MoneyElement — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:12:51 +0000

10.Switzerland – Probability of Default 3.9%

9. Belgium – 3.8%

8.Australia – 3.2%

7. USA – 2.9%

6.Denmark – 2.6%

5.Netherlands – 2.5%

4.France – 2.2%

3.Finland – 2.1%

2.Germany – 1.9%

………………

1.Norway – with cumulative probability of Default = 1.4%…. The Statistics Norway announced that the trade surplus stood at NOK 29.8 billion in November, down from NOK 38.29 billion surplus recorded a year ago.

Read more here.

Lawmakers looking to extend deadline

MoneyElement — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:29:40 +0000

Last month we saw a record long extension of federally paid benefits. Both the House and Senate are looking to push this same deadline to 2011, or we would see 1Million jobless people loose their benefits beginning January and another 3Milion as reported by the National Employment Law Project will stop receiving checks by March. Just to summarize current situation 9 Million Americans are currently depending on their jobless benefits.

Read more here.

Disappointing Retail Sales

MoneyElement — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:54:37 +0000

November had lower than expected sales numbers. According to ICSC report “These data suggested that the holiday season got off to a weak start in November for retailers–though the tail-end of the month saw relatively strong sales for electronics and online spending, but that seemed to be at the expense of some in-store performance and apparel demand, in particular.”

Read full story here.

More jobs cut

MoneyElement — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:38:26 +0000

ADP reported that job cuts were more than estimated in November. Last month roughly 169,000 jobs were eliminated as supposed to the 150,000 expected. Reports show that the job market will continue to worsen in the upcoming 2010 even as the economic conditions are improving.

Read more here.

Shop, Shop, Shop until you drop

MoneyElement — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:09:58 +0000

Consumer confidence jumped in November 0.8% since October, from 48.7 to 49.5. Not a surprise since Holiday Season is right around the corner, as well as Black Friday. The Expectation Index increased to 68.5 from 67. “The Consumer Confidence Survey® is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world’s largest custom research company. The cutoff date for November’s preliminary results was November 17^th” Few other numbers/expectations “The labor market outlook was also slightly less pessimistic. Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead declined to 15.2 percent from 16.8 percent, but those expecting fewer jobs decreased to 23.1 percent from 26.1 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting an increase in their incomes decreased to 10.0 percent from 10.7 percent.”

Read full story here.

Stocks up

MoneyElement — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:54:40 +0000

Since March’s lows stocks have climbed close to 65% and significantly surpassed fair values. The chart suggests that stocks have gotten fairly ahead of themselves especially considering the economic struggle. Many still argue whether the enormous stimulus and near zero interest rates will lead to “V-shaped” or more of a “U-Shaped” recovery. One thing is for sure; the past few months have left most investors baffled.

Not a VShaped Recovery

MoneyElement — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:04:27 +0000

Strong retail sales in the midst of this year’s holiday sales season. High oil prices and decline in the core PPI were making headlines today. After dropping down 0.6% last month, in October we see overall increase of 0.3% in PPI. Boosts were also spotted in the energy and food sectors – 1.6%. There are worries however that investors are loosing faith and slowly moving out of the dollars and into real assets. “Without government stimulus, it’s difficult to imagine that the economy would in fact be recovering at all.”

Read more here.

What do the charts reveal?

MoneyElement — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:24:40 +0000

Many small business owners are still very pessimistic about today’s economy. Merchant Circle reveals gloom statistics. As we can see close to 50% of more than 12,000 respondents to the survey disagree that the worse of the recession is behind us. We all have witnessed the tight lending by banks, but the once impacted more than anyone else are small business owners. Merchant Circle reveals that over 70% of the 12,190 business owners have negatively been impacted by the recession and 50% of them expect to have relatively the same or worse sales revenues in the next three months. When comparing this holiday season verses last year again over 55% expect lower revenues.

See more from MerchatCircle here.

Worst October Deficit Ever

MoneyElement — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Fed deficit hit $176.4 billion, which was way higher than the expected $150. Grand total of America’s total deficit for 2009 is $1.42 trillion. If we were to break it down this number will equal $4,671 per person. This record-high number worries many economist who foresee and increase of interest rates which in tern will slow down even more the frail economic improvement.

Read more on the federal budget deficit here.

From cash in the bank to IOUs

MoneyElement — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:51:50 +0000

”Congress is not willing to take short-term pain for long-term pain,” Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, told a Senate Budget Committee.

The country’s long-term debt load is climbing. Just the interest on it alone may total $4.8 Trillion between 2010 and 2019. This is what two wars, a decade of tax cuts, and all of the financed borrowing has led to. Congress might be looking to raise the ceiling of $12.2 Trillion. One of the main concerns is the securitization of the US reputation in the eyes of foreign creditors.

Read more here.