Economic Outlook

This week's Top 8 includes bank loans, Treasury, fiscal cliff, Poway, jobs, and dividends.

This week's Top 8 includes: The ECB, Hilsenrath, Moody's, home prices, GDP, Stockton, and next week's FOMC.

Food prices have been on a tear lately.  In fact, grain prices are up 17 percent this month and look poised to rise further as the extent of this year's drought looks to be extreme. This story has legs because it is a dramatic increase in the cost of something we all need (a Google search for "food prices" restricted to the most recent 24 hours returns nearly 16 million hits).  But does it really matter to overall inflation?

Robert Guest, The Economist’s Business Editor, discusses his key business and economic findings from his book Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism in this video interview with Joe Morgan, Chief Investment Officer of SVB Asset Management...

The Brazen Dozen is a list of events that I believe have a 40 percent probability of occurring during the year. These events skirt the outposts of probability. The objective is to think outside the box with regard to economic, market, and political activity so that we may better prepare for the 100-year floods that seem to occur so frequently.

The Brazen Dozen is a list of twelve events that I believe have a 40 percent probability of occurring during the year. These events skirt the outposts of probability.

In "normal" times, investors and traders use economic and market data to drive their decision-making process. When the economy is growing, inflation and employment are stable, and earnings are solid, investors look primarily to data that would show any sort of stumble in these three measures.

Markets around the world have experienced great turmoil over the last several weeks as they struggle to figure out what the world will look like going forward.