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Category Archives: Macro Trends
Comparative History: 2012 vs. 1998
The first quarter of 2012 was a stunner in the equity markets, giving us the best first quarter since 1998, which begs the question, what did 1998 look like relative to 2012? 1998 2012 Sector trends Beginnings of an enormously … Continue reading
Not out of the woods yet with the economy
The Economy While the domestic economy is strengthening a bit, the recent unemployment numbers greatly overstate the improvement as most of the gains simply came from people leaving the workforce rather than actual employment gains. At Meritas, we mostly ignore … Continue reading
Posted in Commodities, Macro Trends
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The Fall of Sacred Cows
As global events unfold, the underlying premises which have guided market participants’ reactions to bureaucratic actions are being put to the test and are coming up short. This is going to get a wee bit technical, but bear with me … Continue reading
Posted in Eurozone, Financial Crisis, Macro Trends
Tagged eurozone, Lenore Hawkins, Sacred Cows, sovereign debt
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The European Crisis in Chart Format
My friend Dan Mitchell posted this fantastic graphical description of the potential outcomes for the European sovereign debt crisis on his blog, International Liberty. It was just too good to not share! Dan believes that the middle column is the … Continue reading
Posted in Eurozone, Macro Trends, National Debt
Tagged Dan Mitchell, debt crisis, Default, eurozone, Greece
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Understanding the Eurozone
To understand what is happening in Europe, one needs to first appreciate the context, the raison d’être for the Euro itself. One of the primary goals of the Euro was to prevent the kind of recurring conflicts that spawned two … Continue reading
Posted in Eurozone, Macro Trends, National Debt
Tagged eurozone, Lenore Hawkins, sovereign debt
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Déjà vu all over again?
The market has now risen five days in a row and we’ve been predicting a downtrend. What gives? After a 20% decline in the markets, some sort of temporary uptrend is not surprising. We note that the rise has been … Continue reading
Posted in Eurozone, Financial Crisis, Investing, Macro Trends
Tagged Ben Bernanke, eurozone, Financial Crisis, Lenore Hawkins
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Lenore Hawkins on Bulls and Bears
On August 26th, Lenore Hawkins spoke with the Bulls and Bears team on how hurricane Irene could push the economy over the edge into a recession. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com
Posted in Investing, Macro Trends
Tagged Bulls and Bears, Hurricane Irene, Lenore Hawkins, Recession
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Beware of earnings
While the reported earnings for companies the 2nd quarter of 2011 was once again quite strong, with actual beating consensus forecasts by about 4%, be careful of mistaking history for future predictions. GOOD NEWS: Durable goods orders increased 4% in … Continue reading
There they go again!
I am endlessly amazed at the mentality of many on Wall Street. So many times in the past few weeks we have heard, “Now is the time to buy! We have oversold markets!” Today we see the markets drop another … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Inflation, Investing, Macro Trends, Unemployment
Tagged corporate cash, debt crisis, eurozone, unemployment
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Markets drop amid massive public spending
The major U.S. equity averages have reached correction territory today, which is defined as a 10% drop from their recent high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq all hit their highs of 2011 high … Continue reading
Posted in Investing, Macro Trends, National Debt, Unemployment
Tagged government spending, National Debt
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