Salient to Investors: Alan Blinder at Princeton said: Bernanke has done a very good job and will stay if he wants it. Has an A+ on keeping inflation low and D- on keeping unemployment low. His Lehman Bros decision was wrong and was a turning point after which everything fell apart. Fed is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Leonhardt at The New York Times said: Fed will continue QE until unemployment falls to 6.5%. Democrats may want Bernanke replaced since a Republican has been Fed Chairman for over 20 years. Obama likes Bernanke and both have underestimated the length and depth of this weak economy.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Warren Buffett said: Investors should bet on the natural juices of capitalism in the US and not focus too much on what the government’s done – opportunities abound. The US economy is recovering because of the natural juices of capitalism and not because of government – a wonderful system
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Anika Khan at Wells Fargo Securities is optimistic about the housing recovery and sees construction picking up. Morgan Stanley expects residential construction to rise 14 percent in 2013. Jason Schenker at Prestige Economics said housing has huge upside potential for GDP and job creation and the only thing that’s going to drive the substantial improvement to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bernard Baumohl at Economic Outlook Group said America’s shadow economy – estimated by economists to be $2 trillion – may explain why retail sales have grown at an annual rate of 3.5 percent or more since September 2010. Over 30 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Simon Johnson at MIT writes: US rates on government debt are very low, the dollar is not depreciating rapidly, and inflation seems stable – no imaginable circumstance under which the US would need to borrow from the IMF. Thomas Jefferson was obsessed with the idea that debt was bad
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Harry Dent and Rodney Johnson write: We are entering the last stage of the 80-year New Economy Cycle Commodities topped in 1920, 1951 and 1980. The spending cycle is 39 years and the commodities cycle is 30 years. Gold will fall to $750 The US economy will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mohamed El-Erian at Pimco said: The Fed’s record monetary stimulus has forced central banks from Mexico to Brazil to Korea to Japan to follow suit as artificially low US interest rates has put upward pressure on several currencies, threatening the competitiveness of their economies. Central banks are carrying
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The private-equity investment of $36 billion in US brick-and-mortar retailers before the recession in 2007 has not turned out well. Of the 8 largest retail private-equity buyouts during that period, only Dollar General has gone public Leon Nicholas at Kantar Retail said there is nothing special about
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: JPMorgan Chase now predicts US home prices will rise 7 percent in 2013 and over 14 percent through 2015, and Bank of America predicts prices will now rise 8 percent in 2013 as homebuyers and investors rush to acquire a dwindling supply of properties and the Fed lowers mortgage rates. Samantha McLemore at Legg Mason
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