Sentient Money

Insiders are fleeing stocks like a Russian pilot fleeing a plane at a European air show (Bears Prowl Wall St. as Insiders Dump Stock - Reuters):
“Company executives are selling stock at a rate not seen in two years after a near 50 percent rise in the S&P 500 from a March 9 low. That [...]

Bloomberg reported today that the U.S. recession may have ended in June, per Edward McKelvey at Goldman Sachs (U.S. Recession May Have Ended in June, Goldman’s McKelvey Says)?
“The upturn in industrial production reported for July suggests that June could wind up being the NBER cycle low,” McKelvey wrote. The projection was “highly tentative” and “a [...]

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report in November 2008 detailing future energy production.  The report focuses on oil, of course.  Guess what?  We are entering a period of declining energy production:
The world’s energy system is at a crossroads. Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable - environmentally, economically, socially. [...]

Is this the ultimate use of Buffett’s “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful” rule?
Billionaire Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. posted its worst results ever in 2008, said the economy “has fallen off a cliff” and that efforts to stimulate recovery may lead to inflation higher than the 1970s. [...]

By now everyone has looked at their 401k and other investment accounts and thought to themselves, “Nice, the market is finally turning.”  It is turning up, but why and will it last?
What information is the market turning on?  The financial bailout?  Nope, that’s old news, if it was turning on that it would have already [...]

Check out this graph showing the increase in credit card charge offs and losses for banks:
 
 NYT
We are still below the high reached after the tech bubble collapse, which suggests we still have a long way to go.  At that time the major problem was a decline in stock prices.  This time we have a larger [...]

Bank Dividends
It appears that any bank that takes government money to recapitalize is not allowed to pay dividends until the borrowed government money is repaid.  Take a look at the Big Picture for more detailed info.
 
Baby Food
Wal-Mart is seeing spikes in baby food purchases based on when people are paid.  Per Infectious Greed this is [...]

When the amount of government debt and consumer debt is shaking the very foundations of trust and confidence in the strongest and wealthiest country to ever exist, nothing is implausible.  When you add in a healthy dose of corruption (AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign):
“WASHINGTON - Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm [...]

I saw this Baltic Dry Index (BDI) graph on The Big Picture.  It is fascinating, but before I get into what this means let me give you a brief definition of what the BDI represents:
Most directly, the index measures the demand for shipping capacity versus the supply of dry bulk carriers. However, since the demand [...]

 
 Retail sales came out today:
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday retail sales decreased 1.2 percent last month, nearly double the 0.7 percent drop that had been expected. It was the biggest decline since retail sales fell by 1.4 percent in August 2005.  - Chicago Tribune
Retail sales were down for three straight months ending with a 1.2% [...]