The below infograph from Flowing Data gives us a good idea about what we as US consumers spend our money on. The data goes back 25 years so you can see the trend in each category of expenditure. If they had just used data from my spending, you’d see separate line items for brick oven pizza and Ghostface…
Seven Things You Should Know 12/4/2009
Seven Things You Should Know December 4th 2009 1. Second Worst Decade For Stocks: Since 1900, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined in price (not total returns) in just two decades — the 1930s and the 2000s. The Dow is currently down 9.2% since the end of 1999. In the 1930s the index fell 39.5%. The best…
November Jobs Report: Big Upside Surprise
From the New York Times: The Labor Department reported Friday that the United States economy shed 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October. Market was expecting a loss of like 125k or so. There were also some revisions of September and October: The government…
Hot Links: Dubai, Google & Top Trades for 2010
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The true story of Dubai’s insane construction boom. (WSJ) Goldman‘s 7 top trades for 2010. (PragCap) New stimulus plans may include government-subsidized kitten ownership. Brilliant! (NakedCapitalism) Bank of America: the largest securities offering since 2000 at $19 billion. (Bloomberg) Senator Bunning abuses Bernanke, calls him a creature of some sort. …
SEC Looking at 12b-1 Fees from Mutual Funds
Are 12b-1 fees an anachronism that should be done away with? The SEC seems to be leaning that way and I tend to agree with them on the issue: From Reuters: The top U.S. securities regulator pushed on Thursday to reform mutual fund fees that traditionally used to stimulate fund growth and help cut shareholder…
Analysts Weigh in on Bank of America Following TARP Repayment Announcement
Matt Phillips over at WSJ MarketBeat just posted some analyst takeaways from Bank of America’s TARP repayment announcement. Here’s Goldman’s take (they are bullish on BAC): Goldman Sachs: “BAC’s share count is now “set” at around 10 billion shares which should have a positive impact on the market implied discount rate (which we estimate at…
Memo: Changes at CNBC Following Comcast Merger
—–Original Message—– From: CNBC Corporate Communications [mailto: all] Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:32 AM To: All Subject: Exciting Synergy Opportunities With Comcast Greetings Gang, By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard that our parent company’s flirtation with Comcast has moved past the necking phase and we’ve now agreed to go all the way. I…
Hot Links: In The Bunker
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The SEC hedge fund probe is going deeper. (DealBook) Classic Crudele: What Bernanke should answer for in his hearing today. (NYP) I’m making this one the post of the day: Carl Icahn talks activist investing with Robert Shiller‘s financial markets class at Yale. (Greenbackd) Get yourself up to speed and…
Bank of America: "I Told Ya I Was Good For It"
What a way to make an exit! From DealBook: Bank of America said late Wednesday that it would repay its entire $45 billion in government bailout money before the end of the year…“We appreciate the critical role that the U.S. government played last fall in helping to stabilize financial markets, and we are pleased to…
Free Can of Beans With the Purchase of a House
Only in America, circa 2009. This ad from Clayton Homes is actually running on the Columbia Daily Herald‘s website right now:
