Yesterday a hearing was held and during JP Morgan Chase Home Lending CEO Mr. David Lowman's testimony, a protester yelled out the Chase Bank representative was committing perjury.
Housing Starts and Building Permit statistics for October were released today and showed an 11.7% drop from September.
Privately-owned housing starts in October 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 519,000. This is 11.7 percent below the revised September 2010 estimate of 588,000.
The Consumer Price Index for October 2010 increased 0.2% from last month. For the year, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) has risen 1.2%. The increase this month was all gas. The energy index increased 2.6% with gas jumping 4.6% in a month. Core CPI, or all items less food and energy, was unchanged, 0.0%, now three months in a row.
This is the battlefield on which corporations and their customers are struggling for survival. If companies can make price increases stick, the consumer is going to bear the burden of inflation, and for a lot of consumers this can be the last gasp to bankruptcy.
The Federal Reserve is on the defensive over its next round of Quantitative Easing, known as QE2. Over 20 distinguished economists and market analysts placed an ad yesterday in The Wall Street Journal urging the Fed to drop its plan to purchase $600 billion in Treasury securities over the next six months. Finance ministers around the world have deplored this policy for its tendency to generate global inflation and scupper the dollar on the foreign exchange markets. Even that noted financial expert Sarah Palin has published a Facebook criticism of the Fed’s “running the printing presses.”
Some Federal Reserve governors have warned about the potential inflationary implications of QE2, even though they voted for it. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and NY Fed President William Dudley have been in the media during the past week, justifying their QE2 decision. If you analyze their comments carefully, you realize they haven’t been helping their cause.
The Federal Reserve's Factory Production report shows a 0.0%, no change for October 2010 in Industrial Production. Here is a detailed report. It's not as bad as it sounds, manufacturing output itself increased and utilities dragged the index down. High temperatures are blamed for the drop in utilities, but myself, I cannot help but wonder if less people can afford them?
The Producer Price Index for finished goods increased 0.4% in October 2010. The PPI measures prices obtained for U.S. goods. Intermediate goods prices increased 1.2% and crude or raw materials prices went up 4.3%. PPI is often called wholesale inflation by the press.
The reason finished goods prices increased was all energy, up 3.7% in one month.
The Empire State Manufacturing survey for November 2010 is out and what a nosedive! General Business Conditions dropped 27 points! New Orders dropped 37 points in a month.
Retail Sales increased 1.2% for October 2010 and is up 7.3% from a year ago. The three month average of October, September and August 2010 has an increase of 6.3% in comparison to a year ago.
One Washington insider summed it all up: "What do you expect when you elect a guy who praises Ronald Reagan and stops his campaign in early October 2008 to return to the Capitol to make sure the Wall Street bailout gets passed? Have you been paying attention?"
(Washington) President Barack Obama has confided his plans to become a registered Republican some time before the end of the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress. Speaking to his inner circle, he lamented failing to bring the two major parties together. One of his confidants reported Obama saying, "It's really just one party anyway and clearly the Republicans have the confidence of the people. I can finish my original mission much easier within the GOP." Sources wouldn't elaborate on what that mission is. (Image: juvetson)
President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.
The infamous Bush tax cuts, what are they exactly? Below are the tax rates for 2010.
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