For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 12, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes Intel (INTC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Google (GOOG), Fairchild Semiconductor International (FCS) and Safeway (SWY). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5612.

This Week's Events

Large-cap companies will dominate the earnings headlines this week.

Six Dow components, including Intel (INTC), are scheduled to release third-quarter results. Joining them will be Goldman Sachs (GS) and Google (GOOG). In total, we have confirmed reports from 72 companies, 29 of which are in the S&P 500.

There will be quite a bit of economic data published, including CPI and industrial production and capacity utilization. We will also get the minutes from

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 21, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes AutoZone (AZO), Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), General Mills (GIS), KB Home (KBH), Lennar (LEN), Paychex (PAYX), CarMax (KMX), Research in Motion (RIMM) and Texas Industries (TXI). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5612.

This Week's Events

We will get another look at initial third-quarter results with 11 S&P 500 companies reporting. Included in this group are AutoZone (AZO), Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), General Mills (GIS), KB Home (KBH), Lennar (LEN) and Paychex (PAYX). A total of 33 companies are on the calendar.

The Fed will hold a 2-day

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We will get another look at initial third-quarter results with 11 S&P 500 companies reporting. Included in this group are AutoZone (AZO), Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), General Mills (GIS), KB Home (KBH), Lennar (LEN) and Paychex (PAYX). A total of 33 companies are on the calendar.

The Fed will hold a 2-day meeting starting on Tuesday. No change in rates is expected at either this or the November meeting. Traders will be looking for insight about the pace of recovery and updates on the various bailout programs.

In addition to the Fed meeting, the economic calendar features August Leading Indicators and home sales data.

Monday: August Leading Indicators Tuesday: Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index Wednesday: FOMC rate decision (about 2:10 pm), weekly crude inventories, weekly mortgage applications Thursday: August existing home sales, weekly initial jobless claims, weekly natural gas inventories Friday: August new home

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Richard Posner has a critique of public intellectuals who work in the public sphere (with special reference to Christina Romer), either in government service, or in journalistic fora. Mark Thoma and Brad Delong have already made clear the (many) points at which Mr. Posner has gone astray. Parenthetically, I'll add that I wonder about the analytical abilities of anybody who lumps Phillip Glass (!) and Elliott Carter together into the highbrow music category (see page 18 in his tome Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (1991)). More substantively, I have a few of additional observations, some of which are amplifications of Brad Delong's points.

First, I agree with Mark Thoma that Mr. Posner apparently has little understanding of macroeconomics, either of old-style Keynesian type, or the new(er) real business cycle type, or certainly New Keynesian approaches. His charge that her current pronouncements are at sharp variance with

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“Just how can the Fed credibly promise to be irresponsible…?”  Here’s a thought—that tiny handful of investors and analysts warning how Fed policy risks hyper-inflation are in fact doing the central bank’s work.

The Fed wants you to believe hyperinflation is looming. Or at least, it shouldwant that, if doubling its balance-sheet – purchasing and lending against investment junk – is going to work the wonders that modern central-bank theory says it can. And the Fed certainly wants you to believe it will stop at nothing to avoid deflation (”whatever means necessary” as the chairman put it back in 2002).

So anyone touting the hyperinflation risk in public is playing the shill, a decoy – seemingly unconnected – proclaiming the miracle powers of Dr.Ben Bernanke’s snake oil to CNBC anchors at every chance.

In fact, they’re doing the Fed’s work better than the Federal Reserve itself. Really.

“The major danger with a zero

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US Stocks pared early losses Friday but ended the day mixed after a jump in savings rate to 15-year high worried investors that higher savings rate would hurt an incipient economic recovery.  Although there was willingness on part of investors to hold on to Thursday's gains, markets lacked direction in the absence of clear signals of an economic upswing.  The three month old rally that saw markets scaling new heights has stalled over the past two weeks with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 3.9% year-to-date. Nevertheless, tech-heavy NASDAQ continues to be the torch-bearer with an impressive 16.6% advance year-to-date. On Friday, advancing stocks beat declining shares by a three-to-two margin.  Oil prices settled below $70 per barrel.

With the second-quarter scheduled to end early next week, financials with gains of more than 25% over the past three months are expected to report strong second-quarter earnings, as successful equity

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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.

• Michael Milken & Jonathan Simons (The Wall Street Journal): Illness as economic metaphor, June 20, 2009. Our economic doctors should permit America’s uniquely effective immune system to take over as companies and financial institutions deleverage their balance sheets. With people and with capitalism, the tincture of time is often the best medicine.

• Christina Romer (The Economist): The lessons of 1937, June 18, 2009. As someone who has written somewhat critically of the short-sightedness of policymakers in the late 1930s, I feel new humility. I can see that the pressures they were under were probably enormous. Policymakers today need to learn from their experiences and respond to the same pressures constructively, without derailing the recovery before it

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Or, how ignorance sometimes invalidates a critique.

I am always amazed at how often people jump to the most paranoid interpretations. One case in point is this article by Evan Newmark entitled Mean Street: Obama's Big Fat Fibbing Budget on WSJ's Deal Journal:

Is the White House lying to the American public about the economy? Or, if not outright lying, is it being awfully stingy with the truth?

You have to wonder.

After all, the Obama economic team is full of very smart people. And they have to see the same things that you and I see.

They see April's lousy retail numbers and record foreclosure rate. They see unemployment at 8.9%, state tax revenues facing double-digit declines, and a 14% fall in home prices last quarter.

So how can National Economic Council boss Larry Summers, Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer or Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner still believe in

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This is a slightly revised version of a piece that appeared on the Washington Post's The Hearing today.

In her testimony before the Joint Economic Committee today, Dr. Romer, Chair of the CEA, presented an explication of the progress of the financial crisis and the economic downturn, the anticipated effects of the measures undertaken and planned, and the outlook going forward. On most points, we're in agreement, so I'll only highlight some key issues of interest.

The outlook

I would characterize the description of the economic outlook as guardedly optimistic. We can't say much more, since Dr. Romer -- in line with historical practice -- did not provide specific forecast numbers associated with her testimony. She did indicate that the CEA forecast is in line with the Blue Chip forecast, of -2.1% annualized growth in 2009Q2 and leveling off in 2009H2. What specifically "in line" means is up for some debate; in

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