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MUST READS S&P warns of US rating downgrade – BBC Europe’s banks brace for health test failures – Reuters Stress Tests Compromised by Greek Non-Default – Bloomberg Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels – Telegraph Worried About Debt Limit? The Bond Market Isn’t – Baum, Bloomberg If U.S. defaults on debt: How… Continue Reading Friday Morning Links

The Labor Department reported that consumer prices fell in June for the first time in a year, down 0.2 percent last month due to tumbling gasoline and heating oil prices, but annual inflation rose from 3.4 percent to 3.6 percent. So-called “core” inflation (excluding food and energy) rose by 0.3 percent for… Continue Reading Energy Drives Consumer Prices Down in June

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index plunged to its lowest level since March 2009, down from 71.5 in June to just 63.8 in the first of two readings in July, as a faltering economy, weakening labor market, and the ongoing debate over the debt ceiling and spending cuts sapped… Continue Reading Consumer Sentiment Plunges

I don’t know the first thing about News Corp executive Rebekah Brooks, but, after watching her palling around with Rupert Murdoch over the last week or so, she was really starting to creep me out (along with much of the Western world, I would guess). It’s probably a good thing… Continue Reading Good Riddance – She Was Creeping Me Out!

Struck with seasonal eye allergies that have kept me away from the computer in recent days, I’ve listened to more than enough news and commentary about the debt ceiling negotiations to have developed a real sympathy for the jobless. Hopefully, at least a few elected officials involved in the current… Continue Reading The Forgotten Jobless

Though it’s cousin “fugly” has yet to make an appearance, “ugly” seems to be the operative word for those writing headlines associated with this morning’s labor report: • Ugly Jobs Report Shows US Payrolls Add 18K, Unemployment 9.2% • Unemployment Report July 8… UGLY!!! • June Jobs Report: the Ugly, the Ugly and… Continue Reading The Ugly U.S. Labor Market

Culled from the Police Reports page of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle come the best of the Bozeman police reports from the last week along with some items from the Sheriff’s Office. More reports of late night drunks stumbling around town and ending up in all sorts of  places they shouldn’t be will… Continue Reading The Best of the Bozeman Police Reports

Yes, silver is looking even more bubbly than usual as more foreign bankers wonder about holding assets denominated in little green slips of paper issued by the U.S. government, however, Time Magazine reports on what is a much more important bubble. Forgive the blurriness, since, even if you have a subscription to Time, you… Continue Reading Silver Bubble? Washington Bubble?

Here’s another fantastic graphic at Visualizing Economics, this one on the top marginal tax rates in the U.S. over the last century, coming to you in advance of tax day that, this year, falls on Monday, April 18th rather than Friday, April 15th due to a little known Washington D.C. holiday… Continue Reading U.S. Top Tax Rates Over Time

Pursuant to Rich’s point in this earlier item about the gains for stocks continuing long after the ISM Manufacturing Index peaked, that is indeed quite true – the S&P500 actually rose more than 40 percent from the time that the ISM reached its 2004 high until the 2007 peak for stocks, so,… Continue Reading More on the ISM Index and Stocks