U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Surge Past Expectations To All-Time High

The Business Insider ^ | 4-19-2010 | Vincent Fernando, CFA

[blam]

U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Surge Past Expectations To All-Time High

Vincent Fernando, CFA
Apr. 19, 2010, 10:03 AM

U.S. leading economic indicators for March rose +1.4% vs. +1.1% expected.

Conference Board:

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 1.4 percent in March, following a 0.4 percent gain in February, and a 0.6 percent rise in January. The U.S. LEI is now at its highest level.

Here it is, the all-time high:

[snip]

[netmilsmom]

Unless they are paying cash, you have no proof that the credit card is being paid.

My niece has gotten card after card and maxed them out.

Unless you see dollars, you have no proof they are paying.

[PatriotGirl827]

And that number is greatly understated, as well.

[ichabod1]

I figure SOME hiring will follow. I wouldn’t be pulling out the plastic and going and doing a little lifestyle upgrade quite yet though. I figure the other shoe is going to drop.

[ichabod1]

So, that’s Phoenix. How are Cleveland, Akron, and Toledo doing?

[Chaguito]

Yesterday, my wife and I counted 10 houses in two blocks which look like slum dwellings in a normally pretty neighborhood (CA). Great recovery so far./s

[jonascord]

Am I the only one who uses a debit card? I can walk around with $10 in my pocket for days or weeks. Since I opted out of “overdraft protection,” I can keep track of all my purchases, down to the the penny. It's amazing how not having a fallback at ursurous rates focuses the attention. I have only a $5 per month service charge and track all my balances on the Net. Not everyone who uses plastic is paying 21% interest.

[Osage Orange]

My name is Nobody.....

[netmilsmom]

Personally, I use a debit card as a credit card.

We have one credit card for emergencies and pay it off ASAP. But we are going to pay for those who are in debt “up to their eyeballs”.

[autumnraine]

What are you talking about? Just because someone “swipes” what looks like a credit card to YOU, doesn’t mean they are using a credit card. Do they not have debit cards where you live?

[autumnraine]

After reading your posts, it seems you are a one man “Obamanomics is working! The economy is great!” marching band.

Ridiculous.

[LomanBill]

[or several new appliances.]

It’s part of the EPA “green shoots” smoke and mirrors act.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=rebate.appliance_rebate

[blam]

"Go to a mall and watch people. They are eating at the food court or doing free reading at Barnes and Nobles. Buying a coffee (not a latte)."

I can't, LOL.

They're closing my Barnes And Noble.

Barnes & Noble to close Mobile bookstore June 30

[LS]

I was shopping in Dayton (that good enough for you?) and the malls are packed and the upscale restaurants (Flemings-—probably the most expensive steak house around-—and J. Alexanders) are packed. It does not help to deny the obvious. When they opened “outlet malls” (which in fact aren’t cheap) last fall, the traffic jam was backed up for 15 miles on I-75.

[LS]

Ok, and I agree with most of this. But what happens if, say, the Chinese say, "You know, we have a bigger problem than the Americans. We cannot CALL their debt---it would kill us. So we'll just subsidize their buying to keep our economy afloat." This was pretty much what the Japanese did in the 1980s, and then paid for it big time in the 1990s.

Minsky and others did not account for an outside (major) force being willing to engage in self-sacrifice for what it perceives as a much longer-term favorable goal. I'm not saying it will, or won't work. I'm saying I don't think many models account for this, even now (thus waiting for the inflation that may not come any time soon.)

[LomanBill]

[Amateurs playing at being RE investors with IO mortgages that required a bit of fraud]

Bingo.

 

But those were just the Useful Idiots who primed the A$$Paper/Derivative Sewer Pipe - for the benefit of the likes of Geithner and his GS/Fed pals...

 

And none of that happened overnight... or without a little help:

"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. "They were totally opposed to it," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

 

 

 

[RipSawyer]

Maybe you live in an enclave of crooks. My younger brother told me about someone he knew who was approached by a buyer who wanted a hundred acres of land in South Carolina for a homesite. The man had no intentions of selling and told the person that. The response was to the effect that everything is for sale at some price, “Just tell me what you will take for it, if the Democrats go into office I will have more money than I can spend anyway”. After some thought the man called the buyer back with an asking price that he thought no sane person would pay. The buyer said I’ll get back to you and LATER THE SAME DAY called back to arrange for a meeting with an attorney to do the closing. After that the same buyer approached the brother of the man he had bought the hundred acres from and asked to buy forty acres adjoining the hundred acres. The same thing happened, an outrageous price was paid for the forty acres. The buyer apparently came from Charlotte, NC and had very much an “easy come, easy go” attitude about money. You can be sure that a lot of people are getting rich from corrupt dealings now, the country is being raided and only those with connections are benefitting.

[qwertypie]

Here’s a stat that people should be paying attention to. The recovery is hollow.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Will-Earnings-Sink-the-etfguide-128760071.html?x=0&.v=1

“The financial sector (NYSEArca: IYF - News) now accounts for 28% of U.S. corporate profits, more than ever before. From a different perspective, financials contributed 85% of the overall year-over year profit increase.”

[LomanBill]

>>the country is being raided

>>and only those with connections are benefitting.

 

Connections?

 

Kinda reminds ya of this...

"In five years the family will be completely legit"
--Don Corleone

...don't it.

 

Where's RICO?  When LEO's away chasing terrorists, the mice they do play....

 

 

[RipSawyer]

“Where’s RICO?”
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Good question, it would appear that the largest “racketeer influenced and corrupt organization” is now the united states congress.

[LomanBill]

[it would appear that the largest “racketeer influenced and corrupt organization” is now the united states congress.]

 

 

That's not surprising.   Evidently it's the Best Government Money Could Buy.

 

R.I.N.O.

A Republic is a system, of governance characterized by the Rule of Law.

When the Law fails, the Republic fails.