Tiffany’s And The Case Of The Missing Same Store Sales
Period Tiffany US Same Store Sales 1Q FY 2009 -34% 4Q FY 2008 -33% 3Q FY 2008 -14% 2Q FY 2008 -4% 1Q FY 2008 0% 4Q FY 2007 -1% 3Q FY 2007 +8% 2Q FY 2007 +17% I admit it. …
All Eyes On The Treasury Auctions
An auction of 5 year treasury notes on Tuesday and one of 7 year notes today appear to be driving the market. Everybody is focused on the federal deficit, China’s appetite for our debt and what this means for inflation…
Federal Income Tax Receipts Plummet In April
These are staggering numbers. – Kerry Lynch, Senior Fellow, American Institute for Economic Research Source: “Tax Revenue Plummets”, Kerry Lynch, American Institute for Economic Research, May 20 How about them “green shoots”????? Also see “State Tax Receipts ‘Plummetting’”, Top Gun…
NYT: China Grows More Picky About Debt
China bought less than a sixth of the Treasuries issued in the 12 months through March. Less than two years ago, by contrast, Chinese purchases of Treasuries, which included purchases in the secondary market as well as newly issued securities,…
Standard & Poors Revises UK Debt Outlook To Negative
We have revised the outlook on the U.K. to negative due to our view that, even assuming additional fiscal tightening, the net general government debt burden could approach 100% of GDP and remain near that level in the medium term. …
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp Deficit Increases By $22.5 billion In 6 Months
There is actually a federal “corporation” that guarantees private sector pensions. Private sector employees with defined benefit pension plans pay an insurance premium to the PBGC which it invests and uses to pay pensions when private companies can’t do it. …
Obama Has Dinner With Stiglitz and Krugman
On the night of April 27, for instance, the president invited to the White House some of his administration’s sharpest critics on the economy, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Over a roast-beef…
State Tax Receipts “Plummetting”
We don’t normally use the word plummet but that is the operative word right now. – Robert Ward (subscription required), Deputy Director, Nelson Rockefeller Insitute of Government For all of you who think the economy is recovering, take a look at…
Recession Making US Entitlement Crisis Worse
How can one justify bestowing a triple A rating on an entity with an accumulated negative net worth of more than $11,000bn and additional off-balance sheet obligations of $45,000bn? An entity that is set to run a $1,800bn-plus deficit for…
Dumbass Ideas From Economists
I just read two of the dumbest ideas ever about how to fix the economy by two academic economists, one from UCLA, the other from Harvard, in respected publications. In a much discussed article in The New York Times…