not sure what your news feed is, but the deepening of the housing problems in the US gets nil main stream exposure anywhere. Case Shiller doesn;t recover from -ve territory in a hurry (2+ years) and -ve gains are cummulative. There's still only so much toxic carp people want on their portfolios.
the opposite of the US not being in a double dip certainly isn;t a US recovery of any kind. Mounting US social security liabilities are in top condition also - NOT! This feeds off/into the muni problem and is currently containing US inflation.
I can;t believe people are still talking of the US as anything else but morally and financially inept, democracy banner waving hypocrits. They are buying a bull rally for sure with an even lower extended ZIRP, and will keep doing so until there is another chance to rape the participants yet again.
rebranding doesn;t work. i don;t rate any of the analysts any more than selfserving gratuitous egomaniacs, but that's the US for you. They eat that 3 times a day - hopefully the rest of the world is changing it's diet. Merril Lynch once stoof on the podium beside President Reagan - they've been revolving the roles every since.
Luckily for the rest of us their is still some sources of semi-accurate information on the US. I simply follow the trends nowdays, and am happy to wait for the next fall. China and emerging markets have woken up to save the world this time around - not the US.
as for the muni debt, it's all in house so who cares how bad it gets even when muni yields become hi risk junk in the wake of competivie assets. we've seen the response on holding the world to ransom via abuse of the USD, as if muni debts are really going to matter after that - it;s a tiny part of the US trade deficit shadow in any case. they NEED a low USD policy for a while to come so as to encourage FDI back with unemployment so low. Social security is a ticking time bomb for them with such low tax rates nowdays - hence the immediate need to feed a bull rally.
it;s if/when foreign investment drops out of the US altogether that they are truly newtered without a recovery of sorts. Australia is the poster child of fluctuations that result from this.
NAFTA was another tenticle, making Canada and Mexico to be the EURO German equivalents, funding the unfunded liabilities of the US social security system. Can;t see that being a happy marriage in the slightest.
interesting days ahead .... for many years to come.
(20min delay)