The Radford Free Press – Page 450 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / Case Shiller Index, Consumer Board, consumer confidence, consumption, home prices, jobs, real estate, recovery, unemployment /

House Prices and Consumers

September 29, 2009

We have two pieces of news today that need to be mentioned: the Case Schiller home price index and the Conference Board’s index of consumer sentiment. The Case Schiller index shows that home prices are rising very slightly from the lows reached earlier this year. The increase was 1.6% in July compared with June. This […]

Economics / banking, bankruptcy, capital ratios, deregulation, externalities, GE, leverage, regulation, toxic assets /

Financial Reform, Pollution, and Social Value

September 28, 2009

I can hear you all saying: ‘Huh?’ Well there’s no economic news today so I thought I would attempt to tie together a few of the broader themes that seem, to me at least, to be crucial as we get the economy going again. That’s where what I call social value comes in. The purpose […]

Economics / consumer confidence, consumption, deficits, GDP, home prices, inventories, new home sales, recovery, stimulus /

Up and Down We Go

September 25, 2009

As if right on cue today’s news encapsulates everything we’ve been talking about all week: despite all the brouhaha about recovery our progress is precarious. First: durable goods orders. Today’s report is bad news. Durable goods orders fell at a 2.4% rate in August. That’s the second drop in the last three months, but follows […]