Morning Reading – Friday, March 4, 2011
The Big Picture: Sam Zell to Carl Quintanilla: BULLSHIT!
As tweeted earlier today, crusty old Sam Zell — wrong on residential real estate, wrong on the Chicago Tribune, yells BULLSHIT to Carl Quintanilla at the 4:27 mark.
The Big Picture: Headline of the Day: Greenspan Says Government ‘Activism’ Hampering U.S. Recovery
What a schmuck: The worst central banker in the history of planet earth has a something new to say: U.S. government “activism” — fiscal stimulus, housing subsidies and new regulations — is holding back the economic recovery.
The Big Picture: NFP: Likely Improvement May Lead to End of QE, ZIRP
Let’s consider what this might mean to markets: If we start seeing consistently larger sustained payroll gains, that might lead to the end of QE and ZIRP.
The Big Picture: Chart of the Day: Components of the Gasoline Price
Traveling in California today we witnessed $4.00 gas and prompted us to think what makes up the price. We constructed the following chart from a U.S. Energy Information Agency (E.I.A.) time series.
FT Alphaville: The global economy is critically ill
Here’s an arresting chart from SocGen strategist Dylan Grice.
It shows gross interest payments as a share of US government revenues under two scenarios.
FT Alphaville: Mean-reverting US government bonds
It’s a SocGen double header on FT Alphaville this Friday morning.
You’ve had the apprentice (Dylan Grice) and now it’s time for the Dark Sith Lord (Albert Edwards).