According to a Gallup survey, 51% of Americans say that they are in the middle or upper-middle class. Between 2000 and 2008, an average of 61% of Americans identified themselves to be in middle and upper-middle class. (Source: Gallup, April 28, 2015.) In the survey, the percentage of…

Retail sales jumped in May, suggesting the U.S. economic recovery is picking up momentum. On Thursday, June 11, the Census Bureau reported better-than-expected retail and food services sales. For the month of May, total retail and food service sales came in at $444.9 billion, representing a 2.7% increase…

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) raised Ireland’s credit rating for a second time in six months, this time from A from A+, as the country’s economic recovery continues. (Source: The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2015.) On Friday June 5, 2015, S&P cited the country’s narrowing fiscal…

Look at any newspaper or watch any financial news channel and you will hear someone saying the U.S. economy is growing. To prove their point, they will refer to gross domestic product (GDP) figures and unemployment data. Yes, the GDP numbers and the unemployment picture do look better,…

Very soon we’re going to hear the earnings news straight from the horse’s mouth. Quarterly earnings are beginning to trickle in and even if you aren’t interested in the stocks that you don’t own, corporate reporting is the most important market intelligence you can review. For years, Paychex,…

A good gauge for me on how consumers in the U.S. economy are faring has always been the statistics coming out of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE/WMT) reported its operating income in its second quarter (ended July 31, 2014) declined by 2.4%. Its subsidiary, Sam’s Club (wholesale store),…

Stocks are going to gyrate around second-quarter earnings, but that’s exactly what this market needs—the corporate bottom line and expectations for the rest of the year. With so many stocks trading at their all-time record-highs, I view investment risk in equities as being high at this time. This…

By no surprise to me whatsoever, the government’s third and final estimate of first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) came in at a negative annual pace of 2.9%. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, June 25, 2014.) The U.S. economy’s growth rate in the first quarter of this…

Don’t buy into the notion that there’s economic growth in America! We’ve already seen U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) “unexpectedly” decline in the first quarter of 2014, and now there are signs of another contraction in the current quarter. (The technical definition of a recession is two negative…

There still is no real trend in the equity market. One day, stocks sell off big-time; the next, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit new record-highs. This is a very tough market to figure; anything can happen when monetary policy is highly accommodative. A lagging…

One week ago today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 288,000 jobs were added to the U.S. jobs market in April. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7 % in March. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2, 2014.) Even the most optimistic of economists weren’t expecting…

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of another year. It seems as though the move into 2013 was just yesterday. I was bullish at the start of the year, but I was not expecting the kind of stock market advances we have seen with the…

The news headlines are saying the U.S. housing market is witnessing robust growth and flipping homes for profit is back. While many are now saying there is growth in the U.S. housing market and that it will continue, I disagree with them, based on many different factors…all of…

Can it be true? The U.S. Department of the Treasury has reported that for the federal government’s fiscal 2013 year, which ended on September 30, 2013, the U.S. government budget deficit was $680 billion—the smallest budget deficit in five years. (Source: Bureau of the Fiscal Service, October 30,…

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided this week to keep quantitative easing and easy monetary policy going. The statement by the Federal Reserve said, “To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the Committee today reaffirmed its view that a highly accommodative stance of monetary…

More evidence consumer confidence in the U.S. economy is plunging… The monthly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, a consumer confidence indicator that shows the expectations of Americans about the U.S. economy, plunged to its lowest level in October since November of 2011. The index stood at -31 in October,…

These days, central banks are on a very dangerous monetary policy path. Paper money printing has become the norm. Major central banks around the world are taking the same actions; they have learned the phrase “quantitative easing” well. Economy’s soft; no problem! We’ll just print more money so…

Analysts and investors demand clarity when a company reports or offers up guidance. But when it comes to the Federal Reserve, investors and analysts don’t seem to demand the same level of clarity, even though the central bank has been what I would label “wishy washy” as far…

While the media and politicians tell us we’re in an economic recovery…I keep writing about the slowdown we’re heading towards. How can I say that? First, take out the stock buyback programs, and you’ll see that U.S. companies are seeing their earnings and revenues grow this year at…

The airline sector has reorganized over the past few years, with mergers and route cuts that have resulted in an uptick in prices for passenger travel driven by increased capacity. Yet with the rise in global wealth, we are seeing an associated rise in travel in the airline…