KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Tuesday November 25 Housing and Economic stories

Monday, November 24, 2014

Tuesday November 25 Housing and Economic stories

Record Beef Prices Soaring By 28% Got You Down? Then Drown Your Sorrows In Cheaper Booze – (www.zerohedge.com) The bad news in today's PPI inflation report: por prices soared by 7% in the past month, while beef prices hit a new record high, rising 2% in the month, and up nearly 30% from a year ago. The good news: for the first time in years, booze prices declined from a year ago. So, with compliments of the hoapy president: don't be moapy and start drinking cheap booze, preferably early and often, as you try to remember - in an alcoholic daze - what beef tastes like.

Disappointment Becomes Norm for Global Growth as Japan Contracts - (www.bloomberg.com) Group of 20 leaders pledged over the weekend to do everything they can to boost the global recovery. Japan’s descent into a recession is the latest reminder of how elusive that goal is proving to be. Less than 24 hours after heads of state gathering in Brisbane, Australia, agreed to take measures that would boost their economies by a collective $2 trillion by 2018, the Cabinet Office delivered news in Tokyo that Japan’s gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank an annualized 1.6 percent in the three months through September, the second straight contraction.

Abe $1 Trillion Gift to Stock Market Shields Recession Gloom - (www.bloomberg.com) Shinzo Abe has helped make investors in Japanese stocks $1 trillion richer over the last two years, and many are betting he will make them even richer. Abe, Japan’s prime minister, is moving to safeguard his political future at the same time government data show the economy unexpectedly sank into a recession last quarter. In a press conference today, he called for an early election and delayed an unpopular sales-tax increase. Global investors, for their part, are standing by Abe and his campaign to restore growth. Since November 2012, his efforts to weaken the yen, restore profits and revive the economy -- collectively known as Abenomics -- sent the Topix index up 93 percent, the biggest gain in developed markets. Now, in the face of a 2.5 percent decline yesterday on the economic data, fund managers say they will keep buying.

Inflation Expectations Are Breaking Down Again – (www.businessinsider.com) Back in October, the big story was not just that equity markets were selling off while bonds were rallying, but that inflation expectations had completely fallen off a cliff. And while the stock market found a bottom on October 15 and has since moved back to all-time highs, inflation expectations, after a brief bounce, are heading back towards their lows. Breakevens are indications of future inflation expectations, calculated by subtracting the yield on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities notes from Treasury bonds of the same duration. This measure indicates what the market thinks the inflation rate will be over the next five- or ten-years, depending on the duration of the bond used.

Kissinger Warns "We Need A New World Order"; Ukraine Should Forget Crimea & NATO - (www.zerohedge.com) Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says in an interview with Der Spiegel that there currently is an urgent need for a new world order, but its coming into being will be long and complicated."There is the Chinese view, the Islamic view, the Western view and, to some extent, the Russian view. And they really are not always compatible," he warns, adding that introducing anti-Russian sanctions was a mistake. He added that Ukraine should not hope to become a member of NATO in the foreseeable future, as the alliance will never vote unanimously for the accession of Ukraine.

OTHER STORIES: