With all the talk of federal budgets and debt ceilings, now is a good time to turn our focus to the consumer.
Poverty rates and median income remained unchanged in 2012, despite the recovery. So, how does the average US household spend their paycheck? This chart breaks it down.
As you can see, on average, housing, transportation, and food are the biggest costs.
Here we go again ... 'Treasury urges Congress to act now on U.S. debt ceiling.' But, where does the federal money go? To answer this, just take a look at this year's 'Death and Taxes' infographic.
The FY2014 budget chart contains over 500 departments, agencies, programs (and just about everything else the government can spend money on).
It is a mind-blowing record of government spending. Click here to see a much bigger version.
The poster is six square feet. Get it here.
Of course you have heard that Apple Computer will release its new iPhone 5s this Friday.
My older son tried to get me to skip this release. I half-jokingly told him that not buying the new iPhone might put my "early adopter" status in jeopardy. He sneeringly said "Buying an iPhone is proof you're not an early adopter ... Anybody who really understands technology is buying the Samsung Galaxy S4."
I know he was joking. I know he was giving me a hard time. I know he didn't mean to hurt my feelings. Nonetheless, it hurt. There was a kernel of truth that got under my skin, bruised my ego, and had me questioning my place in the technology adoption cycle.
So, are you buying the new iPhone? I am.
Twitter will generate more than 500 million dollars in revenue this year. This represents a doubling of the firm’s estimated 245 million dollars of revenue in 2012. Other analysts estimate even higher sales figures.
Notoriously secret, Twitter has not published any figures. However, this is likely to change in the near future. Why? Twitter announced its IPO by Tweet on Thursday. Twitter filed 'Confidential' IPO S-1 Docs.
This year, 131 companies have filed for IPOs -- up 44% from last year.
Swedish academic and Gapminder Foundation co-founder Hans Rosling says data doesn't always back up our conceptions about the world.
In the video, below, Rosling explains that our ideas about developed and developing countries largely reflect the reality of fifty years ago, rather than today.
This video, The River of Myth, was released to coincide with Bill Gates' annual letter, and shares its emphasis on the power of measuring to achieve progress.
The Chinese yuan has vaulted into the Top-10 of most frequently traded currencies for the first time, the Bank for International Settlements said in its foreign exchange survey.
Clearly, this is a trend worth noting.
Sometimes confusion precedes a breakthrough - other times ...
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Talk about a flight to safety ... August saw the biggest cash withdrawal from all U.S. exchange-traded funds in over three years. Likewise, scared investors triggered the largest outflows from US equity funds in the last five years.
Think of it as a flight to cash as retail investors dump risk assets.
The question is whether this marks the beginning of a new trend, or just nimble trading in the face of perceived danger?
Joshua Brown, who blogs under the moniker "The Reformed Broker," tries to put things in perspective with this handy guide to market pull-backs.
With less than a five percent pull-back, it is a little early to trot out words like "correction."
As to whether we could see a correction (or worse, a bear market or even a crash), the answer is that it is always possible. Nonetheless, most corrections do not become crashes, and over time, every single one of them turned out to have been great buying opportunities.
Apparently not everyone is worried.
According to Bespoke's Bank and Broker CDS (credit default swap) Index, however, credit traders do not seem too worried.
The chart below measures default risk for the major financial firms around the world. Default risk for the financials typically spikes when stocks fall and vice versa.
Throughout 2013, the credit markets have become as comfortable with financial stocks as they've been since before the financial crisis of 2008/09. During the stock market pullback we saw in June, default risk picked up a bit, but during the most recent pullback, we've seen default risk trade sideways. Over the last month, the S&P 500 Financial sector is down 4.47%, but Bespoke's CDS Index is actually down 0.45% as well. So, for whatever the reason, the credit markets don't think there's reason to be concerned just yet.
What about you?
As we head into Labor Day, think about Steve Ballmer ... By retiring (or the Market's response to the announcement of his retirement), he made himself nearly $1 billion richer. Nice job.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Speaking of dangerous Red Lines ...
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
Posted at 01:18 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Gadgets, Ideas, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Trading, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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