Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Double Dips Tuesday- Chicago PMI 'Drops Like Big Rock'; Case Shiller Index Confirms Double Dip In Housing; Food Stamp Usage At Another Record; UN Says US Dollar May Collapse; Fukushima Explosions Raise Questions; Much More

How many overpaid Wall Street analysts does it take to calculate the Chicago PMI and still get it wrong by orders of magnitude? The answer is "too many to count." One look at the PMI debunks any hype about any economic recovery here in the US that you see spewed on CNBS or any other main stream media outlet. In fact, the data (if accurate and not downwardly revised next month, a la BLS) shows business activity (rather, business inactivity) dropped the most since Lehman Brother imploded and the second most in 30 years, coming in at 56.6 on expectations (by those overpaid anal cysts analysts) of 62.0. Not even close. You didn't really think the triple catastrophes in Japan were bullish, right? Oh, never mind - you better not answer that.

Moving on to more bull... bullish economic data, the Case Shiller S&P 20 city housing index came in at - drum roll please - negative 3.61%, putting home prices at levels not seen since 2002. In other words, a flood of people just went underwater with their mortgages and have joined the list of millions of Americans/Canadians/Europeans who will be paying more for a home than it is worth - with no end in sight. This Christmas, the new theme song will be "Jingle Keys."

Want more? How about the latest data from the SNAP program which shows now a record 44 million Americans are on the food stamp program. This write up from the Burning Platform is a nice cheery piece on the situation. Of course all of this is bullish for the stock markets as they rally today on nothing but a little optimism that Greece, a nation with a GDP the size of one county in California is getting another bailout. At the same time, the United Nations has issued a warning that the end of the US dollar is coming. Nothing like the decimation of your currency to get the markets into a rally. Did you check out the latest price of Toll Brothers stock? Do it just for a good solid laugh.

Alas, all of this comes as record insider stock sales occur on a weekly basis and record bonuses are issued to the very bankers that sparked this mess to begin with. Yet, none of that really matters when you consider that Fukushima is spiraling out of control. Soil samples taken far from the plant show levels of radiation skyrocketing. Worse than Chernobyl? On the orders of magnitude worse.

Finally, an as of yet unknown explosion occurred at reactor 4 today. TEPCO blames a gas line. We blame TEPCO.

3 comments:

  1. very short article today but still good info. dont know how you write in the future lol. nothing on the riots in va? i emailed you this morning. last thurs was one of your best and i hope you continue to write like that more often. i read your blog everyday even when you dont have a new article then i read older ones. great blog keep up the good work.

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  2. Funny when you read there was an explosion near Building 4 but no radiation increase and you know whats in it and in which shape it has been you have to wonder if they cant even measures doses of radiation that high

    First time I am commenting here but love the way you write as well...wondering why your posts are not on zerohedge :)

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  3. @Anon1- The combination of bugs in the blogging software to limited news events leads to shorter articles. Still, we try. Thank you.

    @Anon2- I read an article that some temporary dosimeters have been "maxed out." Radiation of 225 sV per hour at reactor 1 is troublesome as they need special equipment to read that for extended periods. Machines, like people, break down after long radiation exposure.

    I submitted an article to ZH and I am currently awaiting a response. Vote for me! ;)

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