The Independent

Here is what we (us, our kids, grandkids, great-grandkids) owe... Only taxes can pay for these or a default by the US congress. When you're in a hole, stop digging. Congress has to go - they are the diggers! Throw all the incumbent bums out!   U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 11,000 in November -- the smallest decline since the recession began at the close of 2007. Today's chart puts that decline into perspective by comparing job losses during the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-2006 (dashed blue line). As today's chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple as much as what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle.

by CalculatedRisk on 11/11/2009 08:47:00 AM Matt Padilla at the O.C. Register writes: Foreclosure notices hit record 8,800 Graph from O.C. Register. ForeclosureRadar.com reports that outstanding foreclosure auction notices in Orange County rose to 8,895 at the end of September, the highest in this housing downturn and probably the highest ever. September’s total was up 5% from August and 90% from a year ago. Padilla provides a second graph (see his article) of 90 day delinquencies, foreclosures and REOs. He writes: [The second] chart shows that the ratio of borrowers having missed at least three monthly payments is at nearly 7% and has risen every month for more than three years. It’s incredible that while so many mortgages are delinquent, banks are only holding 0.26% of first mortgages as REOs. Loans in the trial modification period are still considered delinquent, so that might explain some of the increase in 90+ day delinquencies. But that doesn't explain the ...

by Charles Maley Although Gold might be a bit stretched in the short term, it is not hard to see where it could go a lot higher in the long run. I found some interesting charts on Agora Financial website that fall into the “a picture is worth a thousand words” category. First, let’s look at the expansion in the monetary base. The monetary base is not only in a vertical ascent, but also without precedence. We have never seen anything like this. The monetary base is essentially the Federal Reserve Bank’s currency and reserves. Now, with an expansion like this you would think inflation would be rearing its ugly head, but as hedge fund manager John Paulson points out “that’s because this base money has not yet been lent out and multiplied throughout the economy. Yet the monetary base and money supply are highly correlated, almost 1-to-1 between the two.” So what does this mean? I think it means that soon or a later the money supply will follow, and if money supply grows faster th...

First time unemployment topped 10% for the first time since 1983 (see chart below courtesy chartoftheday.com), well above the Administration’s peak estimate of 8.5% they projected in February. Temporary employment, typically a leading indicator of hiring, rose for the third straight month, increasing 33.7K in October. Without that increase the employment picture would have been significantly weaker. Unofficial estimates of the “underemployed”, i.e. those wishing to be employed full time but unable to obtain employment, rose 1% to 17.5%. The second chart below, courtesy of Barry Ritholtz, shows the number of unemployed longer than 27 weeks, dating back to 1948. Even if the economy stabilizes and hiring moves back into a 150K-200K per month range, it could take 3-5 years to achieve prior levels of employment.