Friday, June 15, 2012

Coincidentally, the Economy Looks Great!


Click to enlarge.

As seen in the chart, relative to the long-term trend the economy has never looked better. That's right. Better than 2000! Better than 2006! I'm feeling really optimistic here! Risk on, baby! Risk on!

This is such a relief. I was clearly dwelling on the wrong things.

1. $72 average real oil price over last decade (a new record).
2. 39.9 million missing jobs (compared to long-term trend).
3. 8.2% unemployment.
4. $55 trillion total credit market debt owed.
5. $12 trillion missing real net worth.

None of those things apparently matter as long as the Fed remains proactive. So cheer up!

Give me a "B". Give me an "E". Give me an "R". Give me an "N". What's that spell?

Bern!

And when times get tough where will we go?

We're going to Bern!

Go...... Fed! Go...... Bernanke!

Okay, I admit it. I was not destined to be a Fed cheerleader apparently. Sigh.

See Also:
Sarcasm Disclaimer

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Coincident Economic Activity Index

4 comments:

Troy said...

Discovered something recently -- Japan is a net creditor at $3T and the US is a net debtor at -$3T.

Wonder which is better to be . . .

actually this guy's article on that:

http://www.ely-co.com/media/Default/Articles/wsj11199.pdf had a high pagerank, but googling the name I see he's a Cato crank so I'm not going to bother reading it.

nanute said...

http://youtu.be/dOqY0rwT9dk Musical tribute? It has animated robots too!

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

Fascinating link from January 1990.

A far greater threat to Japan's status as the world's largest creditor nation would be a flight from the yen by Japanese citizens.

Japan / U.S. Foreign Exchange Rate (Jan 1990 to present)

In hindsight, I'd say Bert Ely missed the mark on that one.

Stagflationary Mark said...

nanute,

Nice.

I saw Prometheus last night.

Prometheus (Greek: Προμηθεύς) is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who in Greek mythology is credited with the creation of man from clay and the theft of fire for human use, an act that enabled progress and civilization.

Theft of fire. Theft of FIRE economy. It's all good.