Dubai’s Debt Crisis
The current Dubai crisis regarding Dubai World’s inability to pay its debt obligation in a timely manner: (Click here to read article)
Mortgage Rates Drop
Fixed 30-year mortgage rates dropped to an average of 4.78% this week. 15-year mortgage rates averaged 4.29%. If you have the equity in your house and can refinance, the window of opportunity is still open. (Click to read article)
Local Survey on Retirement
Interesting survey about retirement expectations in the NW: (Click to read article)
Housing Numbers
Today the National Association of Realtors released numbers on existing US home sales. It was a surprise to the market, feeding a run-up in equities, with the anticipation that the housing recovery may be a durable one: (Click to read Bloomberg article)
Fed’s Bernanke watching dollar drop closely
Tight bank credit and high unemployment are cited in the article as some of the key reasons the Fed will not raise the Fed Funds target in the near future: http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1651494020091116
Bill Gross on Bloomberg Radio
Bill Gross is one of the best bond managers, globally. Here he is on Bloomberg Radio: Link to Bloomberg Radio
Study: Seattle remains U.S.’s 17th-best performing city
A look at Washington state’s cities and how they rank in creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. Seattle’s rank has not changed from last year, Olympia moved from 9th to 7th, Tacoma dropped to 21st from 8th (due to the Russell move, no-doubt) and Spokane fell from 35th to 41st: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/11/09/daily39.html
White House Aims to Cut Deficit With TARP Cash
This article from the Wall Street Journal highlights a couple pieces of information: current TARP outlays, TARP repayments, the US debt ceiling and the pressures on this administration to reign in the deficit in the near future: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125799009185344567.html
Reserve Currencies
The following article is from TheEconomist.com, published November 11th, 2009. It is a timely article given the fear surrounding current US monetary policy and what it means for the US dollar as a primary currency reserve. I think the telling point in this article is “what are the options?” to the US $ as the primary currency reserve. There are solutions, but they not going to be easily adopted anytime…
Cash as a % of US Stock Market Capitalization
Let me preface this with saying that I always think that these types of graphs are self-serving for the people in my position. However, it is still interesting data when considering the recent run in equities: http://fiws.fidelity.com/emails/insight_outlook/download/09_1111_MARE_Still_High.pdf