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  • National and Regional House Price Update

    September's S&P/Case-Shiller house price index was released.

    Seasonally-adjusted nominal prices increased 0.3% and 1.3% from the prior month for the 20-city composite and the local market (Minneapolis-St. Paul), respectively. Prices declined 9.4% and 11.3% from the year-ago period for the composite and the local market, respectively.

    Seasonally-adjusted real [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:00pm EST

  • The Ranks of the Unemployed GROW!

    The ranks of Karl Marx's reserve army of the unemployed swelled to 10.2% in October (as measured by U-3), a level of unemployment not seen since 1983.

    Including people who are working part-time but would like to work full-time and those who have become discouraged, unemployment (measured as U-6)' [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 12:00pm EST

  • House Price Update

    I'm making a few changes to the way I report national and local house prices. Instead of reporting on the NSA (not seasonally adjusted) S&P/Case Shiller index, I will use the relatively new seasonally adjusted (SA) data set.

    This morning the S&P/Case Shiller House price Index was released for' [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 6:00pm EDT

  • Our Lost Decade

    A milestone will be marked in December: Japan will likely begins its third lost decade. Here's a Bloomberg story discussing the upcoming milestone.

    It can't happen here in the US, right?

    As you will see, we may already be heading down that road.

    Below is a [...]
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    Posted: October 25, 2009, 2:30pm EDT

  • National and Local House Price Update

    (I'm going to try to produce some new interesting graphs that will be posted in the near future.)

    I'm also going to shorten these regular posts for the sake of brevity.

    S&P/Case-Shiller (CS) house prices for July were released for the national composite and the local (Minneapolis-St. Paul [...]
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    Posted: September 30, 2009, 7:45pm EDT

  • Taking Another Dip in the Giant Pool of Money

    NPR's This American Life does a follow-up piece this week to last year's popular episode "The Giant Pool of Money".

    The follow-up piece is worth a listen.

    I'll try to get out the latest nominal and inflation-adjusted S&P/Case-Shiller house price values for July tonight. (I've been [...]
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    Posted: September 30, 2009, 8:30am EDT

  • The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN

    The evidence of Catholic collaboration with Marxist and “progressive” networks is substantial

    Cliff Kincaid of the Canadian Free Press reported this week of The Bigger Scandal: Catholic Church Funding of ACORN.

    The only thing wrong with the title is forgetting to mention it is the apostate [...]
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    Posted: September 25, 2009, 8:34pm EDT

  • Eighteen Reasons Why You Should NOT Vaccinate Your Children Against The Flu This Season

    Bill Sardi gives 18 reasons why one should not vaccinate against the flu. This entire flu scare each year is really a sickening display of the government-media complex ala promoting government propaganda.. The numbers spouted out by the statistically-challenged media would be laughable if not so serious. It's likely' [...]
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    Posted: September 16, 2009, 9:34pm EDT

  • Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream turns Homo

    ...what a fricken disgrace

    Ben and Jerry's renames ice cream Hubby Hubby in celebration of gay marriage


    “Ben and Jerry's has changed the name of one of its best-selling ice creams to Hubby Hubby, in celebration of the legalisation of gay marriage in its home state [...]
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    Posted: September 12, 2009, 10:52pm EDT

  • June House Price Update

    Yesterday, S&P/Case-Shiller (CS) existing house price index was released for the 20-city composite and the local Minneapolis-St. Paul market for June 2009 (2-month reporting lag).

    The CS reading came in at 141.8 and 113.5 for the composite and the local market, respectively, for June 2009. This represents a respective [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2009, 7:00pm EDT

  • Fooled by Seasonality: Local and National House Prices

    S&P/Case-Shiller house price index (CS) was released this morning for the 20-city composite and the local Minneapolis-St. Paul market. Recall that CS is a house price index based upon the repeated sales of existing homes; the index is also lagged by two months.

    For May 2009, house prices increased [...]
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    Posted: July 28, 2009, 9:30pm EDT

  • Legal Immunity for Swine Flu Vaccine Makers

    Now Legal Immunity for Swine Flu Vaccine Makers

    The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has just signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any [...]
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    Posted: July 20, 2009, 2:34pm EDT

  • Shiller and Roubini Interview on Bloomberg

    There is an excellent discussion on Bloomberg Surveillance with economists Robert Shiller and Nouriel Roubini on the financial crisis, asset bubbles, public policy and regulation. The MP3 is located here (about 50 minutes long). [...]
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    Posted: July 12, 2009, 12:00pm EDT

  • Putting Housing Prices Into Perspective

    I wanted to put some perspective around the housing price correction we are experiencing.

    As I have mentioned in the past, existing house prices typically track closely to inflation (measured as CPI-U) over long periods of time. Below is a chart of all S&P/Case-Shiller local market and composite (20- [...]
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    Posted: July 04, 2009, 11:30am EDT

  • Another Grim Housing Update

    Yesterday's S&P/Case-Shiller house price index indicated a 0.6% and a 0.7% decline in existing house prices for the 20-city composite and the local Minneapolis-St.Paul MSA, respectively, in the month of April 2009 from the prior month. This represents an 18.1% and a 22.1% decline from the year ago period. These' [...]
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    Posted: July 01, 2009, 2:00pm EDT

  • Podcast of the Week

    This week's This American Life is titled "The Watchmen". This installment looks at the financial crisis and the role (lapses) of regulators and the contribution of credit agencies in creating this mess.

    (Recall that last year TAL did a fantastic piece (an instant classic!) on the housing' [...]
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    Posted: June 08, 2009, 6:00pm EDT

  • Pictures say a thousand words







    [...]
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    Posted: June 04, 2009, 10:14pm EDT

  • Florida's "Father Oprah" turns Episcopalian

    This story is quite revealing of what has happened to the Catholic Church. Below is the analysis from a traditional Catholic of the sedevacantism mode:

    MHFM: Yes, for those who don’t know, “Fr.” Alberto Cutie was a popular and well-known priest in the Novus Ordo. He also [...]
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    Posted: June 02, 2009, 5:47pm EDT

  • Circling the Drain: Local and National House Prices

    S&P/Case-Shiller existing house price index was released today for March 2009.

    The results are bleak.

    For the 20-city composite, existing house prices declined 18.7% on a nominal and inflation-adjusted (real) basis from the year ago period. Prices declined 2.2% on a nominal basis (2.0% real) from the previous [...]
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    Posted: May 26, 2009, 5:30pm EDT

  • House Prices Decline Again

    S&P/Case-Shiller was released this morning.

    Local (Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA) and 20-city composite existing house price indices declined 20.3% and 18.6% in February 2009 respectively from the year ago period. Local and composite prices declined 3.1% and 2.2% from the prior month.

    CPI was relatively flat from the prior [...]
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    Posted: April 28, 2009, 7:06pm EDT

  • Home Vacancies Rise Again

    Bloomberg reports on first quarter home vacancies in the US (prior home vacancy here). Vacancies rose to 19.1 million units in the first quarter; home ownership declined for the third straight quarter to 67.3%.

    Let's perform a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There are approximately 300 million people (men, women' [...]
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    Posted: April 27, 2009, 7:00pm EDT

  • It's a Smaller World After All

    The AP reports today that the global economy shrunk for the first time in 60 years. The IMF estimates that the global economy contracted 1.3% in the past year. More chatter about the worst global recession since the Great Depression.

    Amazing that this constitutes for news, since many [...]
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    Posted: April 22, 2009, 9:00am EDT

  • April Housekeeping

    I wanted to take an opportunity to thank our many readers and commenters over the past year.

    In recent weeks, I have not not had the opportunity to blog very much. Commitments to work and a personal life (yes, I have one) have been demanding.

    Going forward, I [...]
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    Posted: April 15, 2009, 8:30am EDT

  • First Annual Decline in CPI Since 1955

    Bloomberg reports:
    April 15 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of living in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in March, underscoring Federal Reserve forecasts that inflation will be contained in coming months.

    The consumer price index decreased 0.1 percent compared with a 0.1 percent gain projected by the median forecast [...]
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    Posted: April 15, 2009, 8:15am EDT

  • Local and National House Prices Down Again

    S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for local (Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA) and 20-city composite was released this morning for January 2009. One word describes the latest reading: punishing.

    Local and 20-city composite existing house prices declined 20.4% and 19.0%, respectively, from the year ago period on a nominal basis. Prices declined [...]
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    Posted: March 31, 2009, 7:00pm EDT

  • New Marching Orders from Washington

    Update at bottom...

    It's as if I woke up in the middle of a Dali painting.

    In exchange for another bailout, the CEO of General Motors has caved in on the Administration's demand to step down (link to WSJ).

    What political-connected (union or ACORN-connected) crony gets [...]
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    Posted: March 29, 2009, 6:00pm EDT

  • A Celebration of Light and Modernity

    Today, the world is observing the second annual Earth Hour.

    This blog had viewed Earth Hour as an opportunity to celebrate modernity with light.

    Our friend Coltrane best summed it up, from Coltrane's Earth Hour post last year:
    Here is what I plan to do and I' [...]
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    Posted: March 28, 2009, 3:00pm EDT

  • UMD Bulldogs: Rally To Remember

    The last time the UMD Bulldogs pulled off a shocking comeback I was going there for my undergrad. That comeback was at the expense of rival U of Minnesota in their home rink at the DECC. University of Minnesota-Duluth came back from being down 4-0 in the final eight minutes [...]
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    Posted: March 28, 2009, 11:36am EDT

  • The War of Federal Aggression

    The Christian Science Monitor reports on growing resistance by the states to growing--dare I say--overreaching federal powers.

    The following excerpt from the CSM story nicely sums up the issue:
    Although the idea of states' rights took hold in the run-up to the Civil War in order for the' [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2009, 8:00am EDT

  • Behind the Curtain

    NPR's Fresh Air has an excellent interview with Frank Partnoy, a law professor who worked at an investment bank derivatives trading desk during the 1990's. (The interview is about 40 minutes long, but well worth the listen).

    The interview offers great insights into the investment banking business and [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2009, 10:00am EDT

  • That Sinking Feeling

    With the massive amounts of government deficit spending all over the world, are we seeing the initial signs of that dreaded "crowding out" effect?

    Bloomberg reports on the Bank of England's failed bond auction, not seen in 7 years.

    Bloomberg also reports on weak Treasury sales' [...]
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    Posted: March 25, 2009, 2:00pm EDT

  • Sad Announcement

    Coltrane, a contributor to this blog, passed away on Tuesday. He had succumbed to complications due to a medical condition he had lived with for many years.

    He was a trusted, long-time friend of mine.

    I had invited him to join this blog because of his interest in [...]
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    Posted: March 19, 2009, 9:30am EDT

  • So You Want to Have a Depression?

    A CNN poll was released indicates that 45% of the American public believes that an economic depression was likely.

    What came first the chicken or the egg? The depression or the expectations of a depression?

    Don't get me wrong, I consider myself a realist. I think we' [...]
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    Posted: March 17, 2009, 8:00am EDT

  • Twin Cities House Prices Down Again

    If you drop prices, they will come...

    This morning the local paper reports that Twin Cities median house prices declined 23% in February to $150,000. Closed sales increased by 3%, and pending sales increased by 7.4%.

    (Last month's report is here.)

    Inventories declined to 7.8' [...]
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    Posted: March 11, 2009, 11:45am EDT

  • Beggar Thy Taxpayer

    This week's The Economist features an article discussing the Obama budget and highlighting a disturbing trend with regards to the changing composition of taxpayers.

    An excerpt from The Economist article:
    Finally, by asking only the richest 2% of Americans to pay more, Mr Obama is building his vision' [...]
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    Posted: March 09, 2009, 12:00pm EDT

  • It's Raining Government Cheese...

    The US unemployment rate climbed to 8.1% in February, the highest level seen in 25 years.

    This was the third straight month of job losses in excess of 600,000. Last time we've saw that? 1939.

    In addition to the "free" ponies Washington is air dropping to' [...]
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    Posted: March 06, 2009, 8:30am EST

  • Finally, Hope I Can Believe In!

    There have been numerous observations made in recent months comparing recent government intervention in the economy to the unfolding plot of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (example).

    An excerpt from this week's The Economist:
    Reviled in some circles and mocked in others, Rand’s 1957 novel of embattled [...]
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    Posted: March 05, 2009, 9:00am EST

  • The Unintended Consequences of Higher Taxes

    Will people alter their behavior in light of higher taxes? Anecdotally, it appears that the answer is: Yes.

    Here is an example from ABCNews.com (lifted from Drudge):
    A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La., who asked not to be named, told ABCNews.com that she plans to cut back [...]
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    Posted: March 03, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Experiencing Q4 Shrinkage...

    Fourth Quarter GDP in the US contracted by 6.2%.

    A couple of excerpts from Bloomberg:
    Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter at a faster pace than previously estimated as consumer spending plunged, companies cut inventories and exports sank.

    Gross domestic [...]
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    Posted: February 27, 2009, 8:30am EST

  • Local and National House Price Update for December

    This morning's release of the December S&P/Case-Shiller house price index shows an 18.5% and an 18.4% nominal decline in prices from the year ago period for the 20-city composite and the Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA, respectively. This represents a 2.5% and a 4.6% decline from the prior month for each market,' [...]
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    Posted: February 24, 2009, 8:30am EST

  • More Downside?

    Robert Shiller appears in a couple of Tech Ticker videos today. In the first, Shiller discusses his view that house prices remain too high and that we may only be at the half-way point for house price declines.

    Below is the interview at Tech Ticker:



    [...]
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    Posted: February 23, 2009, 11:45am EST

  • Sharpening Pitchforks and Lighting Torches...

    This video rant on CNBC this morning made its rounds on some sites I follow (to my surprise it made it to the top of the Drudge Report today).

    Here you go:



    The rant nicely sums up the frustration many Americans are feeling--those who were [...]
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    Posted: February 19, 2009, 11:45am EST

  • "Inside the Meltdown"

    Tonight, PBS broadcasted a Frontline special called "Inside the Meltdown" that retells the story behind the current credit meltdown we are experiencing.

    As with many Frontline pieces, this is well done.

    Here is the video (60 minutes long):



    I'm not sure if this is' [...]
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    Posted: February 17, 2009, 9:45pm EST

  • Worldwide Shrinkage

    World central banks continue their marathon to drop rates in hopes of stimulating world economies.

    There is a whole slew of bad news from around the world, with the Japanese economy on pace to shrink 12.7%, the UK economy expected to decline 3.3%, and [...]
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    Posted: February 16, 2009, 8:15am EST

  • Twin Ciites House Prices Down Again

    Twin Cities median house sales prices were down a whopping 24% in January from the year ago period (see Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal article).

    The median sales price was $155,000, down from $205,000 a year ago. Median prices in St. Paul fell an even larger 52%(!) to $80,000 [...]
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    Posted: February 12, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • More on Treasury's Big Nothingburger...

    IMHO, probably the most rational, pragmatic view of the current state of economic affairs and Treasury's "big" announcement yesterday, from Tech Ticker:

    ' [...]
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    Posted: February 11, 2009, 11:45am EST

  • The $9.7 Trillion Bill

    Bloomberg has tallied the total cost of government intervention to be at $9.7 trillion, assuming that the latest "stimulus" bill passes. (Check out the full story at the link; make sure to look at the 'Graphic' tab.)

    According to Bloomberg, this amount could pay off 90% of the [...]
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    Posted: February 09, 2009, 8:30am EST

  • I Call the Big One 'Bitey'

    It's Friday, and there is a need for levity (and KY Jelly) in the shadow of the $900B+ "stimulus" package moving through the Congress.

    So reflect on this ditty:



    This big one will be called "Bitey"! [...]
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    Posted: February 06, 2009, 12:30pm EST

  • The Bailout Reader

    The very best economic Institute is the Von Mises...one of the few places where economists still deal with reality. They compiled a Bailout Reader where one can get the Austrain perspective on many aspects related to the current financial meltdown:

    The events taking place in the financial market [...]
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    Posted: February 04, 2009, 10:59pm EST

  • The numbers just don't add up

    This is just too priceless:

    Keep in mind that the current US estimated population is 305,746,968. Population data from
    [www.census.gov]

    Just more typical gubmint scare tactics. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: February 04, 2009, 8:06am EST
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