1.  There is good news and bad news from the housing market this week.  Housing starts fell to a level of 460,000 units last month, the lowest in decades.  This looks bad given that in normal times we need about 1.5 million new starts to meet the demand from new …(Read More)

1. A decade ago in these commentaries I predicted the demise of General Motors and the big three.  In the tradition of good forecasting, I did not provide a date.  But it has come to pass.  GM has been liquidating itself for years now.  It sold 51 percent of its …(Read More)

1. More politicians are waking up to reality – we need to drill for oil in the U.S.  Leaders who are supposed to worry about our future instead of being re-elected in 2 years should have figured this out years ago.  As usual, no leadership in Congress, heads in the …(Read More)

1.  The factionalization (new word) of America is becoming absurd.  US News & World Reports reported that McCain made a great move talking about his shopping at Costco.  Pollster Zogby says that Costco\’s mainstream customers are must-wins in the fall election campaign.  Zogby noted that McCain still needed to win …(Read More)

1.  In less than a year, we’ll have a new CEO running USA Inc., our 14 trillion dollar enterprise.  Changing CEO’s is expensive, moving the old staff out, bringing in the new and teaching them where the bathrooms are.  Overall, $8 million is budgeted for the Bush transition.  Once done, …(Read More)

1. While the Fed fiddles with the debt discomfort of our largest banks, inflation burns on Main Street.  The latest report on the consumer price index showed that prices increased at a 7 percent annual rate over the last three months.  If you didn’t get a raise of at least …(Read More)