35 years after the US personal savings rate peaked at 14.6%, the personal savings rate has recently settled in at 4% in May 2010 (after turning negative in 2005). The Federal Reserve released data that showed credit card balances dropped .5 billion during April 2010, the 19th month in an unprecedented stretch of declining credit … Read more
In the not so distant past, there was little difference between financial and strategic investors. Investors of all colors sought to safeguard their investment by taking over as many management functions as they could. Additionally, investments were small and shareholders few. A firm resembled a household and the number of people involved – in ownership … Read more
The Conference Board’s index of Consumer Confidence improved to 49.5% from a extensively upwardly revised level of 48.7 in October. Originally, the October level was at 47.5%. Consensus expectations were for the consumer confidence level to actually fall to 47.5%. The index saw a big enhancement from dismal levels during the spring, but since May … Read more