Archive for November, 2011
Federal Reserve policymakers met last week and again lowered their forecast of economic growth, while upping their 2012 employment forecast.
Earlier this year, at their April meeting, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released their central tendency forecast of real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2012 over the fourth quarter of 2011. It amounted to a mid-point of 3.85 percent. At their June meeting they lowered that 2012 estimate to 3.5 percent. At last week’s meeting the economic growth forecast was again reduced, this time to 2.7 percent.
The revisions in the…
More…
No Comments »
Jobs: The employment report for October wasn’t much to write home about. But it did show the economy has added 1.5 million to private payrolls this year, all without any big-spending federal “jobs” program. Go figure.
In France during the G-20 meeting Friday, Obama blasted Republicans for their failure to pass another round of stimulus spending - this time dubbed a “jobs bill.”
“The American people,” he said in a statement, “deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow…
More…
No Comments »
Despite some modest improvements in the jobs picture with the release of today’s Labor Department report, I would guard against any irrational overexuberance that problems with employment or the economy are being solved.
A smaller-than-expected 80,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls was bolstered by upward revisions in the prior two months, amounting to 102,000 additional jobs. So over the past three months the establishment survey has averaged 114,000. It’s really nothing to write home about.
A 2 percent economy is simply way too slow to generate the kind of 300,000 per month job gains…
More…
No Comments »
If you’ve been hoping to stream live episodes of major network TV to your Apple TV anytime soon, don’t hold your breath.?In an earnings call on Thursday, CBS CEO Les Moonves said that CBS declined a deal with Apple to stream content to its set top box, Apple TV.
When asked about teaming up with streaming …
More…
No Comments »
Ever since Amazon unveiled its 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet in September, a lingering phrase has been attached to the low-cost, high-profile device: “the iPad’s first true Android competitor.” Unlike all the Android tablets that offer 10-inch screens, roomier storage capacities, built-in cameras and 3G support, the Fire will ship with modest hardware specs. In fact, the Amazon tablet would seem ill-prepared to take on the iPad, if not for a trio of Apple-slaying features. The Fire will be insanely inexpensive at $200. It will hook into Amazon Prime, the company’s two-day package shipping and instant movie rental service, for just $79 a year. And the tablet will be supported by the all brand I.D. and operating efficiencies of an digital storefront that people already use daily to buy everything from physical goods to digital downloads. In total, the Fire has the potential to be the first Android-based tablet to give Apple the chills. Amazon’s digital storefront alone should provoke concern. But, no, Apple isn’t fazed. Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes recently met with Apple’s Tim Cook (CEO) and Peter Oppenheimer (CFO), both of whom have a more pessimistic view of the Amazon Fire’s future
More…
No Comments »
Provided by The Business Insider’s Karlee Weinmann and Aimee Groth It’s a microcosm of the nation Companies that can afford to test regionally often seek out cities with populations that are reflective of the greater U.S., or whose consumer habits match the broader market. “There’s a reason Middle America is called ‘Middle America,’” Wendy’s spokesman [...]
More…
No Comments »
With the passing of Steve Jobs last month, there have been countless tributes to the man who created the company that changed the world. But along side all the amazingly beautiful, functional and revolutionary products Jobs created, there is a slighter darker side to Apple, which rarely makes headlines. Mike Daisey, storyteller extraordinaire and lifelong [...]
More…
No Comments »
This is getting repetitive. The October jobs report, out Friday morning, is very similar to the reports of recent months. Some 80,000 new payroll jobs were created, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 9.0 percent. It highlights a trend of an employment market that’s recovering very slowly, with workers eking out meager gains. A [...]
More…
No Comments »
For a while, there has been a strain of center-left American commentary that has viewed China’s leaders as some kind of technocratic super-geniuses who have done a much better job of guiding their society than the loons and hacks who would actually, you know, be voted for. Call this the Tom Friedman school of thought.
In reality, China’s leaders have a tendency to fall for a lot of the same economic fads that fascinate the Western center-left elites. Thus, the Chinese have been suckered into investing untold billions in high-speed rail and “green energy,” endeavors that…
More…
No Comments »
Apple’s famous new speech-powered assistant may have lost her million-dollar voice. Reports circulated on Thursday that Apple’s “Siri” voice-activated iPhone assistant is experiencing service outages with customers across the country.
More…
No Comments »
Last week’s GDP report certainly allayed conventional wisdom’s fears that the economy was sliding back into recession. The headline number for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) was the clincher since it supposedly showed that the consumer, for all the worry about prices, is back and supporting the consumption economy. Sixty-nine percent of third quarter GDP growth came from additional spending on PCE; 80% of that PCE was due to increases in consumer spending on “services”.
For now we will ignore the alarmingly large 1.7% decline in real disposable personal income and…
More…
No Comments »
Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! Occupy Wall Street has stirred up a rash of feelings toward Wall Street in recent weeks that’s spread across the globe. And now, what so many have feared has come true. The movement has turned violent, at least in Oakland, CA. At least four people were hospitalized in [...]
More…
No Comments »
America?s favorite pair of oar-bearing, Lacoste-wearing, jealous twins said in June that they were dropping their Supreme Court appeal of a 2008 settlement with Facebook. But, after an ?impromptu road trip to Mexico? with the Brothers Winklevii, Vanity Fair?s Dana Vachon reports in the December issue of the sister Cond? Nast publication that we, and …
More…
No Comments »
Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! Money can’t buy happiness. Happiness, however, can buy you a longer life. A new study published in the National Academy of Sciences found older people who are happy have a 35% lower risk of dying over a five-year period than unhappy people. But, how does one attain happiness? [...]
More…
No Comments »
Mind what you say in Facebook comments, Google will soon be indexing them and serving them up as part of the company’s standard search results. Google’s all-seeing search robots still can’t find comments on private pages within Facebook, but now any time you use a Facebook comment form on a other sites, or a public …
More…
No Comments »
|
