Author Archive: Jeremy Parkinson
Report: Amazon Plans To Launch Travel Service, Hotel Booking
Skift is reporting that Amazon (AMZN) is poised to launch its own travel service, featuring booking at independent hotels and resorts near major cities. The initial rollout of Amazon Travel would feature a curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The service will likely go live around January 1. […]
Weighing The Week Ahead: Are Investors Too Complacent?
The upcoming calendar has plenty of data in a holiday-shortened week. There could be OPEC, or Black Friday news. In spite of this avalanche of information, I expect commentators to look for an organizing principle. In a week when many will be giving thanks, there will be scrutiny of the new market highs. Many will […]
How To Find The Best Sector ETFs
Finding the best ETFs is an increasingly difficult task with so many to choose from. How can you choose with so many available ETF’s? Why ETF Labels are Confusing There are at least 44 different Financials ETFs and at least 188 ETFs across all sectors. Do you need that many choices? How different can the […]
A Tale Of Two Economies – It Was The Better Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times
Guest Post by Paul Kasriel, The Econtrarian As quantitative easing comes to an end (apparently) by the Fed and is taken up by the European Central Bank (ECB), let’s compare the behavior of nominal domestic demand in each central bank’s economy and venture a reason for any differences. Plotted in Chart 1 are index values […]
Lower Oil Prices And The U.S. Economy
For the last 4 years, the national average retail price of gasoline in the United States stayed within a range of $3.25-$4.00 a gallon. But that all changed this fall, with U.S. consumers now paying an average price of $2.82. Source: New Jersey Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com This usually is the time of year when gasoline prices […]
Employee Quits Are Up: Is It Time To Raise Wages?
The number of employees quitting their jobs is the highest it has been since early 2008, when the recession was just getting started. The number of vacant jobs is the highest it has been since 2001. The unemployment rate continues to fall. Only one thing has not changed: wage inflation. Is it time for companies […]
Fear Of “Surge In Debt Defaults, Business Failures And Job Losses” Means Many More Chinese Rate Cuts
If admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery, then China is making progress. The question is progress to what, because the generic answer, “another debt-fueled boom” is no longer applicable. Recall that as we noted here initially in the summer of 2013, the very reason why China finds itself in a reformist quandary […]
The Fed Concerned About “Importing” Disinflation
The latest Reuters poll is showing 24 out of 43 economists projecting the first rate hike in the U.S. by June of next year. The futures market is pricing lift-off by September. Citi’s latest analysis puts it in December. And all of these forecasts are running way behind the so-called Taylor Rule, which suggests that the Fed Funds […]
Oil Price Slide – No Good Way Out
Written by Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World The world is in a dangerous place now. A large share of oil sellers need the revenue from oil sales. They have to continue producing regardless of how low oil prices go unless they are stopped by bankruptcy, revolution, or something else that gives them a very clear signal to stop. Producers […]
Startups Shine At Cleantech Open 2014 Global Forum
The Cleantech Open held its 2014 Global Forum on San Francisco’s Treasure Island and I had a first-hand view of the action. My direct involvement this year culminated with the previous day’s final pitches and investor connect speed rounds at a Financial District hotel. I stayed for the Global Forum because thought leaders invariably have […]
