“U.S. small business sentiment fell for a third straight month in July as owners worried about sales revenue against the backdrop of weak domestic demand, an independent survey showed on Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business said its optimism index eased to 91.2 last month from 91.4 in June.”
Comments »“The euro-area economy shrank in the second quarter after the worsening debt crisis and tougher budget cuts forced at least six nations into recessions.
Gross domestic product in the 17-nation currency bloc fell 0.2 percent from the first quarter, when it stagnated, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s in line with the median estimate of 35 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The contraction was softened by stronger-than- forecast growth in Germany, the region’s largest economy.”
France manages to side step contraction
Comments »The minutes from the BoJ were released showing the possibility of further stimulus. Asian markets celebrated the news.
Comments »Obama/Biden or Romney/Ryan? The first two paragraphs of the article do a good job laying out the difficult choice facing Americans in November:
This much you have to give Mitt Romney: by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate he has made it impossible to avoid turning the presidential election into a genuine and long overdue debate on the nature, extent and responsibilities of American government. By doing that, whatever the outcome, he will have rendered a service to the American people, who deserve to be drawn into an all-out contest of principles rather than the usual beauty-pageant cum pratfall-watch that consume most autumn campaigns.
Because Mr Ryan (unlike the top of the ticket), is in the habit of actually attaching numbers to his budget proposals, there is a faint possibility that the debate between Americans who want to retain the institutions of the New Deal and the 1960s (such as Medicare) and those who believe that under Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson the country took a fatal step towards collectivism, will actually have to consider evidence rather than collapse into the usual exchange of uninformed abuse that gets confused with argument.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Jared Woodard from Condor Options is out with a great post detailing some of the ways the option market has changed (in his opinion, maybe for the better) since the financial crisis.
Read the article here.
Comments »Hedge funds trimmed bets on a commodity rally for the first time in nine weeks as signs of U.S. growth and speculation that central banks will do more to stimulate economies drove prices to a three-month high.
Read the rest here.
Comments »It had the makings of a scandal: Paul Ryan traded banking stocks during the financial crisis the same day as a meeting with top Treasury Department officials, a Virginia blog wrote Monday. But the rumor, which spread rapidly across the Internet, doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Read the rest here.
Comments »An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.
Read the rest here.
Comments »ATLANTA — A new government survey shows 12 states now have very high obesity rates.
Overall, more than a third of adults are obese but rates vary by state. The latest figures are based on a 2011 telephone survey that asked adults their height and weight.
For the first time, households with only cell phones were included.
State rates remained about the same although states with very high rates went from nine to 12.
At least 30 percent of adults are obese in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
Colorado was lowest, at just under 21 percent, and Mississippi was highest at nearly 36 percent.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the figures Monday.
Meanwhile, the survey shows New York has a relatively low level of obesity among adults.
The rate in New York stood at 24.5 percent.
Colorado was lowest, at just under 21 percent, and Mississippi was highest at nearly 35 percent.
With AP
Comments »This is nirvana for the refiners. It doesn’t get easier to make money running a refinery than now.
Comments »U.S. equities opened flat to down a bit. After trade in and out of positive territory the markets took a small nose dive to being down currently .52%
Oil which was up on mid east tensions has pared gains to being down $0.42 @ $92.37 a barrel.
Gold is off a few bucks and the other metals are down a small fraction.
The euro trades near the high of the session as Merkel has returned from her vacation to iron out plans on saving the euro. European markets closed down about 0.25% on average.
Comments »[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RU5wO8Fjw 450 300]
Comments »“The same problems that plagued the foreclosure process — and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks — are now emerging in the debt collection practices of credit card companies.
As they work through a glut of bad loans, companies like American Express,Citigroup and Discover Financial are going to court to recoup their money. But many of the lawsuits rely on erroneous documents, incomplete records and generic testimony from witnesses, according to judges who oversee the cases.”
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