By Andrew Zatlin – One of the important aspects of the US economy is that recent business cycles have been longer. But also shallower. I believe that the internet is playing a big role in this “lower-for-longer” phenomenon.
By Andrew Zatlin – The impact on the bond and equity markets is both immediate and direct. Increased demand for consumer discretionary goods and services is inflationary and boosts the likelihood of interest rate hikes. It also leads to higher corporate...
Jul 7 – On today’s FS Insider podcast, Moneyball Economics’ Andrew Zatlin, one of America’s top-ranked economic forecasters, discusses the crash in his Vice Index, a measure used to track economically-sensitive areas of the economy...
By Andrew Zatlin – When Vice spending momentum began to slow in February, I blamed near-term noise. I thought it might be tied to February’s tax refund deferral. And when it slowed again in March, I blamed Easter.
By Andrew Zatlin – Uber has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over these past couple months. I’m sure you’ve seen or heard the headlines. From sexual harassment to discrimination, to “Greyball” – software that helped Uber drivers...
By Andrew Zatlin – Before I dig into the coming Lehman moment out of China, you should understand how China has impacted the world. First, let’s start with debt. Debt sits at the heart of China’s miracle growth.
Apr 21 – The massive gap between hard and soft data has now started to narrow with soft data (consumer and business sentiment) pulling back after Trump’s inability to achieve healthcare reform and, possibly, other widely-anticipated...
The Vice Index says retail spending peaks in January and then flattens. But disposable income may slow sooner. Meanwhile, consumer spending is already shifting away from luxury (an early indicator of slower consumer spending). Slower consumer spending is not...
Mar 8 – The hard economic data continues to improve but sentiment or “soft data” is now back at multi-year highs. Andrew Zatlin of Moneyball Economics joins us today to provide his outlook on the economy, the markets, and...
Jan 6 – The economic data has improved with businesses and consumers more optimistic. That being said, one of America’s top economic forecasters, Andrew Zatlin at Moneyball Economics, thinks the market has gotten ahead of itself and explains why he’s...
Finally… the US industrial economy has some good news. Goods demand has stabilized and inventory drawdowns are over. As the chart of inventory shows, starting in the second half of 2015, companies began cutting down on stockpiles.
The market has ripped 5% higher in just a few weeks after Trump’s nomination. But the rally isn’t coming from the largest companies that are weighted more heavily in the S&P 500. In fact, these companies aren’t performing...
The nomination of Donald Trump triggered a major see-saw reaction in the stock market. The S&P 500 immediately capsized 4% before recovering and surging 3%. A similar swing in the market was triggered by Brexit for the same...
Nov 30 – Moneyball Economics’ Andrew Zatlin, one of America’s top-rated forecasters, joins FS Insider today for a wide-ranging conversation on media and polling bias, non-conventional data sources, the Trump impact on the economy...
The consensus was overwhelmingly wrong because of accidental survey bias. It’s the difference between theory and reality, and it gets tripped up in the basics of methodology. Current approaches follow a wisdom-of-the-crowds approach where multiple predictions...
The mounting evidence about the economy and the consumer is now undeniable. For example, we’ve covered the drop in business dining and traffic in premium steakhouses Ruth’s Chris and Del Frisco. The drop in business travel from...
The global economy has been collapsing for the last 2 years. Demand for “stuff” has shrunk 10% since 2014, down to levels not seen since the recession. Just look at cargo shipments from two of the world’s largest ports.
Over the Summer, retail sales data strongly diverged from Moneyball’s Vice data: The official data pointed to a sharp burst of spending. The Vice data showed no acceleration. Recent revisions to the official data removed the surge and...
There is a lot of pent-up demand for Apple’s (NYSE: AAPL) new iPhone 7 that just released. It’s the first new model in over two years (last year’s was just a tweaked version of the old one.) We can gauge the level of the pent-up demand by...
Sep 15 – Moneyball Economics’ Andrew Zatlin, one of America's top-rated economic forecasters, gives an update on his economically-sensitive Vice Index and explains why he believes “we’re in the eye of a hurricane” according to his forecast...