OECD Leading Indicators

[bmichaud]

OECD Area  -2% YOY

China          -2.4

Euro Area    -5.7

USA              +.6

 

The US economy is behaving like an absolute rockstar in the face of what is now looking like a wretched call by the ECRI. Buffett/Parsad/Burke/Moore et al were spot-on dismissing the US recession claims - wonderful call!

OECD_Leading_Indicators.pdf

[bmichaud]

Interesting divergence from recent improving data here: http://www.ceridianindex.com/userfiles/file/Index-Report-Jan-2012.pdf

 

Gotta love this here as well: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/02/sf-fed-president-williams-vital-that-we.html. Let's just keep inflating assets in order to make consumers poorer over time via lower prospective returns and over-spending as a result of the wealth effect.

[Parsad]

Like Buffett, I was positive on the U.S. economy because they took their lumps early and flooded the system with liquidity.  While I think the U.S. will do fine, there is always the possibility they will get dragged under with the rest...Europe now...Asia later!  This does bode well for the U.S. longer term though, as they will get more competitive and their financial system is the most sound in the world right now.  U.S. longer term prospects look far better than many other parts of the world.  Cheers!

[bmichaud]

It really is amazing the natural capitlist juices that drive our economy Buffett always cites - even when one particular sector such as housing is down, the natural gas industry is doing its best to pick up the slack. Or like you're saying Parsad, with a weak remainder of the world, others will begin to flock toward American-made products and American companies will bring jobs back here.