Apropos the post on evaluating the impact of the stimulus, here is graphical depiction of what IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers, and Moody's predicted under the counterfactual of no stimulus against the w/stimulus outlook (from NYT).

Source: J. Calmes and M. Cooper, "New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step," NYT (Nov. 21, 2009).

It’s a lot more action on Capital Hill than on Wall Street friday. The stock market slides in to a weak ending with a light headwind from the dollar, as the investors park their portfolios in safe havens. But in Washington it’s full storm around treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and his FED-friends, while senator Ted Kaufman [...]

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Jim Jubak (MSN Money): 3-step strategy for a twitchy market, November 19, 2009. Many investors are deeply suspicious of the 60% run-up in stocks this year and are itching to sell. But then what? Here’s how to take some gains now while setting up a profitable 2010.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Treasury yield plunge sends warning, November 20, 2009. Collapse in note yields suggests economic distress will keep Fed on hold well into 2010 or beyond.

• Gordon Chang (Forbes): When in doubt, blame Bernanke, November 19, 2009. According to Liu Mingkang, China’s chief bank regulator, low American interest rates and the falling dollar have “seriously affected global asset prices, fueled speculation in stock and property markets

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This podcast features an excellent interview by FT’s David Stevenson with Dylan Grice, strategist of Société Générale. Dylan, who has been described as “the Robin to Albert Edward’s Batman”, discusses stock market bubbles, China and geo-politics.

Click here for the interview (but be warned that the running time is 44 minutes).

Source: David Stevenson, Financial Times, November 6, 2009.

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Bill Gross, co-founder and co-CIO of PIMCO, is to my mind one of the shrewdest money men around. His monthly newsletter, this month entitled “Anything but .01%”, therefore always makes for thought-provoking reading.

The following are a few excerpts from the report:

“Almost all money market accounts - totaling over $4 trillion dollars, yield close to nothing, so close to nothing that I mistakenly did a double take when reviewing my monthly portfolio statement. “Yield on cash”, read the buried line on page 15 of the report, “.01%”.

“Well now, I say to myself, this is very interesting from a number of different angles. If I was hoping to double my money, it would take approximately 6,932 years to get there at that rate! Secondly, being a savvy professional investor and all, I knew that money market funds actually earned 20 basis points or so

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The video clips below provide a handy summary of the reports expected on the economic, financial and corporate front around the globe during the week ahead.

US: Housing data, holiday sales Investors will hear a lot about housing next week, with data on existing and new home sales coming. Hewlett-Packard will release results, and a gauge of holiday season sales will come on Black Friday.

Europe: LSE, Remy Cointreau report The London Stock Exchange, drinks company Remy Cointreau and electronics retailer DSG International report results. Consumer confidence data to hit in Germany and France.

Asia: GDP, auto makers in focus GDP reports from Taiwan, Philippines and Thailand will be in the spotlight next week, along with reports

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Don Coxe has updated his popular webcast on Friday, November 20 - good news for his followers. You can access the recording here or from the sidebar of the Investment Postcards site (the column on the right-hand side) by clicking on Don’s photograph. Please note that access to Don’s recording works best with Firefox or the latest version of Internet Explorer.

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This post is a guest  contribution by Asha G. Bangalore * of The Northern Trust  Company

The main theme of the opinion piece by Representatives Hensarling and Ryan from Texas and Wisconsin, respectively, in today’s Wall Street Journal (Jeb Hensarling and Paul Ryan: Why No One Expects a Strong Recovery - WSJ.com) is poor economic policy choices of the current administration. To make their case they focus on the Reagan administration’s successful economic policies. The success/failure of economic policy choices can be measured by various metrics. It is well known that the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP during the Reagan years has been the largest in the entire post-war period ending 2008 (see chart 1). Therefore, from a fiscal perspective, the perceived success of economic policies of the 1981-1988 period is not a resounding success.

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Source: Steve Sack, Comics.com, November 19, 2009.

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