Nice graph from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (see here) is experimenting with graphical ways to display information about the economy as it recovers from the Great Recession.  The following "spider graph" (in my opinion) does a nice job conveying the essential data.

They comment on the graph as follows:

The chart tells a familiar, but not too happy, story. Only one of the variables in the collection of employer behavior, employee and employer confidence, and labor resource utilization categories has recovered even half the gap from its prerecession benchmark. The labor resource utilization variables look particularly bad, with one variable—marginally attached workers—actually getting worse over the recovery as a whole. On the brighter side, our leading-indicator variables are looking relatively strong, perhaps portending improvement ahead.

James Fallows and the debt-ceiling fiasco

Regarding the debt-ceiling issue, James Fallows (see here) points to what should be obvious (and, the fact that it isn't says all we need to know about journalism and politics today):

1. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize one single penny in additional public spending.
2. For Congress to "decide whether" to raise the debt ceiling, for programs and tax rates it has already voted into law, makes exactly as much sense as it would for a family to "decide whether" to pay a credit-card bill for goods it has already bought.

Back to basics

The Economist (see here) reminds us that the "often recommended" approach to investing is so recommended for good reasons.

The Economist says:

The S&P 500 has now outperformed its hedge-fund rival for ten straight years, with the exception of 2008 when both fell sharply. A simple-minded investment portfolio—60% of it in shares and the rest in sovereign bonds—has delivered returns of more than 90% over the past decade, compared with a meagre 17% after fees for hedge funds (see chart).

Health care spending in 2010

From a Deloitte report (see here) we get some data on health care spending (by age) in 2010.  The report finds:

In 2010, total U.S. health-related expenditures were an estimated $3.2 trillion or 23.9 percent higher than reported in the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA). This translates to $10,392 per person.

December jobs report is in

The December jobs report is in and, well, the economy is still rather weak.

Ben Casselman at the Wall Street Journal (see here) summarizes:

The monthly jobs figures, which have substantial margins of error and are often subject to big revisions, are famously volatile. But lately the numbers have shown remarkable consistency. December was the sixth consecutive month of payroll gains between 100,000 and 200,000. December’s one-month addition of 155,000 jobs was close to the three-month average (151,000 jobs), the six-month average (160,000 jobs) and the 12-month average (153,000 jobs). A pace of around 150,000 jobs a month hardly represents robust growth, but it’s been enough to drive a relatively steady decline in the unemployment rate.

2012 Major Asset Performance by Class

The Capital Spectator (see here) has a summary of the performance of major asset classes for 2012.

The fiscal cliff mini-deal

The Wall Street Journal (see here) summarizes the deal reached yesterday on the fiscal cliff.