From Paul Krugman in the NY Times: The Real Story … When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high — but for very different reasons. One group — the group that got almost all the…

A couple of quotes from Kathleen Pender at the San Francisco Chronicle: Little support for new home-buyer tax credit “We are not advocating another one. We think it’s important for the market to have time to recover on its own,” says Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.…

Hotel occupancy is one of several industry specific indicators I follow … From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: Chain scales report weekly increases Overall, the industry’s occupancy increased 10.6% to 60.1%, ADR rose 2.4% to US$96.50, and revenue per available room increased 13.2% to US$57.98. The following graph shows the four week moving…

What are we in business to do?  Sure, make a living.  But for me, that’s not nearly good enough.  I need something more.  And the thing that’s always kept me inspired are emails like the one I got this morning from a client named Jasmine Krnjetin with Silverton Mortgage…

Here is a graph from the Council of Foreign Relations blog: Greek Debt Crisis – Apocalypse Later Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph from Paul Swartz at the CFR shows the default probabilities on three different dates: On April 30th, no European plan was yet…

The summertime swoon in U.S. mortgage rates continues this week, with averages for home loans falling to yet another record low. Click to enlarge Rates began to inch downwards in June, falling 0.37 of a percentage point in 11 weeks in which the 30-year average either set or met…

From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Rise The Pending Home Sales Index … rose 5.2 percent to 79.4 based on contracts signed in July from a downwardly revised 75.5 in June, but remains 19.1 percent below July 2009 when it was 98.1. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which…

Note: The number of filings is volatile month to month – and August is frequently a bit lower than July. From the American Bankruptcy Institute: August Consumer Bankruptcy Filings fall 8 Percent this Month The 127,028 consumer bankruptcies filed in August represented a 8 percent decrease nationwide over the 137,698…

Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 11.47 million SAAR in August. That is down 18.9% from August 2009 (cash-for-clunkers), and down 0.5% from the July sales rate. Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows the historical light vehicle…

The Institute for Supply Management reported this morning that the PMI increased to 56.3 from 55.5 in July. Expectations were for a decrease to 53.0. Click on graph for larger image in new window. Here is an update to the graph showing the regional Fed manufacturing surveys and the ISM…