Japan is off and running or so they say (for the nth time in 20 years). Yet inquiring minds will be quick to note Japan Deflation Concern Rises Even as Growth Quickens . The acceleration of Japan’s economy to the fastest growth pace in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and s ... Read more

From HotelNewsNow.com: Boston leads RevPAR gains in STR weekly numbers Overall, in year-over-year measurements, the industry’s occupancy fell 3.6 percent to 54.8 percent, average daily rate dropped 8.5 percent US$97.19, and RevPAR decreased 11.8 percent to US$53.29. Click on graph for large ... Read more

Given that the Fed's first mission is to delay, confuse, hope, and otherwise attempt to buy time while engaging in wishful thinking along the way, that Bernanke is willing to admit this may be a jobless recovery is a sign that things will likely be at least that bad. In other words, prepare for a jo ... Read more

Last Thursday, I attended an excellent seminar held by State Street Global Advisors and Morningstar. Although the meeting focused on building portfolios with exchange traded funds (ETF's), the highlight of the afternoon was a presentation on the current state of the global markets. Read the fu ... Read more

Roger Altman, former deputy Treasury secretary, writes in the Financial Times: Why this will not be a normal cyclical recovery (ht Jonathan) The rare nature of this recession precludes a cyclically normal US recovery. Instead, we are consigned to a slow, painful climb-out ... What is unusual is ... Read more

From Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress In their economic projections for the January FOMC meeting, monetary policy makers substantially marked down their forecasts for real GDP this year relative to the forecasts they had prepared in October. The central ... Read more

From David Herszenhorn at the NY Times: Senate Approves Tax Break for Homebuyers The measure would give buyers a tax credit of 10 percent of the price of a primary residence purchased within the year, up to $15,000 ... “We do have a history in this country with housing and it goes back to the ... Read more

As promised, the House and Senate have been busy working on The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes several tax law changes intended to boost the economy. The House passed its version of the bill on January 28; now the Senate gets to monkey with it to its satisfactio ... Read more