tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-344149482011-07-14T17:35:13.181-07:00A forum to discuss, contemplate, post, complain, laugh at and understand economics and the economy and its effect on people of my generation. You know what, I'm pretty much gonna start talking about everything, nobody is reading this anyway.Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.comBlogger511100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-54887880844585236992007-05-15T12:05:00.000-07:002007-05-18T14:14:41.971-07:00

Here is some of the economic news that came out this week:http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070515/home_prices_realtors.html?.v=22In the latest indication of the housing market's slowdown, the NAR said home sales reached a 6.4 million annual rate compared to 6.9 million in the same quarter of 2006.The report came on the same day that RealtyTrac Inc., an industry research firm, said mortgage lenders

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-60720113779122610692007-05-06T12:23:00.000-07:002007-05-06T12:31:21.628-07:00

As the mortgage market gets more difficult, people are having trouble finding 0% down financing and are therefore, being forced to taper down their home desires. As buyers receive credit, demand and subsequently housing prices will come down. See AP article courtesy of Yahoo! Finance.I like the this girl who bought a three story and has credit that won't let her refinance..."Her 29-year-old

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-68117130152666123152007-04-27T08:45:00.000-07:002007-04-27T10:49:28.330-07:00

Government reported their estimate for first quarter GDP growth and it came in very low, the lowest level in the past five years. See article from The New York Times. Here's the AP article from Yahoo! Finance.You may be saying to yourself, well what does it all mean?I'll tell what I think it means, and I don't think its pretty. Usually, GDP goes down and the Fed acts to counterbalance a

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-91719440405260975642007-04-24T14:34:00.000-07:002007-04-24T14:38:11.549-07:00

Consumer sentiment down... sales of existing homes sharpest decline since 1989... oh oh... more later, meanwhile, here's the link from Yahoo! finance ... oh and something about gas prices hurting our demand...Realtors blamed...wait for it...POOR CREDIT!!! What's that?

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-46955703897175312282007-04-24T13:54:00.000-07:002007-04-24T14:34:36.518-07:00

Well, it finally happened...Toyota first quarter sales top GM'sThe truth of the matter is, this metric is meaningless, all we care about is whether GM starts making profit again and that profit comes back into the Detroit metro area. Besides, the automotive industry is going to go through a giant transformation when era of the fuel injection engine begins to decline, after that its anyone's game

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-78164127929450928782007-04-23T19:42:00.000-07:002007-04-23T20:31:59.735-07:00

So over the past couple months we've finally been hearing about the meltdown in the housing market. Finally, all those crazy loans hocked by hopped up phone jockeys, with mediocre college educations, their own bad debt problems, and their perverted views of what is a normal way of living life are finally coming back to haunt these banks that wrote these loans. HSBC declared that they were

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-33029562640019003022007-02-07T08:39:00.000-08:002007-02-06T13:24:55.280-08:00

The Diane Rhem show today featured a debate on the budget by two budget experts, Stephen Moore and Robert Greenstein... The show web page introduces them as follows:GuestsStephen Moore, member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board and former President of the Club for Growth Robert Greenstein, founder and executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy PrioritiesThe show was great

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-32081086517404364822007-02-06T12:59:00.000-08:002007-02-06T13:17:47.169-08:00

Hey:Bright eyes is coming out with another CD. Since I was musing about the need for the combination of user reviews, professional reviews, and purchase options, I caught a blog post by Fred Wilson about a Bright Eyes new track that was released before the album called Four Winds that highlighted a website called Hype Machine. The website basically takes all the music being talked about in blogs

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-32803923297486588542007-02-05T18:51:00.000-08:002007-02-05T19:36:07.653-08:00

I noticed a cool feature on Pitchfork Media's Website that is called Forkcast. It's pretty cool cause it puts up new music and videos and like a weekly Forkcast that does reviews of new music. I think its a great way to take a break from work if you're on the computer and check out some new music.Also, even though pitchfork is relatively mainstream, I find the reviews and new music to be very

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-34822706294596650052007-02-04T09:46:00.002-08:002007-02-04T09:47:44.251-08:00

Petitions for Israel, worth a look:http://www.israelpetitions.com/index.html

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-39546224995256202522007-02-01T06:25:00.000-08:002007-02-01T06:29:36.232-08:00

This is more of the same economic news. Americans are in debt, overlevered on their mortgages, getting paid less, and still spending like drunken sailors....The Personal Savings of Americans has dropped to a negative 1%. For more click here... The good news is jobless claims went down and we added more jobs to the economy. But those jobs are not paying the same and we need to be wary of this

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-68582214880622109552007-02-01T04:35:00.000-08:002007-02-01T04:40:33.236-08:00

This story came across the AP wires yesterday and the Free Press picked it up. A man in Israel, Rafi Yoeli, from the city of Yavne, (Ten Li Yavne v'chochameha) has created a flying car or truck that can act like a helicopter, stay airborne for like two hours and he believes will be viable for sale by 2010. He is working with bell helicopter on the flying car. You can see the car in the

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-262599386061319072007-01-22T15:34:00.000-08:002007-01-30T10:27:45.587-08:00

WEB 2.0 ... more like BUBBLE 2.0Keep drinking the kool-aid people. Yes, its true your blog has fifty widgets and gets a bunch of hits from people like Eric and Steve, but the big dungeons and dragons party that is your blog is a bubble... wait, is that me.??Your favorite tech bubble is back again, round two, valleywag talks about being a jerk about it.This is just the beginning of this bubble as

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-4465389267559129042007-01-21T12:48:00.000-08:002007-01-21T12:51:38.973-08:00

Just in case some of you have been wondering what I've been doing the past couple years, I am currently running an copper tubing facility in Texas that produces tubing for the heat exchanger industry. You can read about the company here:http://www.ameritube.netI make the coffee, type dictated letters, and forward phone calls.

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-60886287437138822482007-01-19T11:02:00.000-08:002007-01-19T13:17:01.067-08:00

I've had this blog for about five months and the one thing I can tell you is that no one reads this thing. But the one long diatribe I had about Enron I got comments on, and from some securities lawyer who thought he was right. Although, I had to concede some point Enron is not wholly innocent, I still maintain that technically Skilling and Lay did nothing explicitly wrong. Further, Fastow's "

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-88942672546002950422007-01-14T17:06:00.000-08:002007-01-14T17:14:02.995-08:00

This is a funny article that was on Bang it Out. I think Mad Dog 20/20 is disgusting and made specifically for drunks, the fact that it is made by a kosher wine company is hilarious...http://www.bangitout.com/articles/viewarticle.php?a=1714You can also get more information about this wonderful beverage at :http://www.bumwine.com/md2020.html

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-56485179932808023172007-01-09T20:20:00.000-08:002007-01-09T20:36:56.069-08:00

So Apple came out with the IPhone... finally. It was supposed to be amazing and be a camera, music player, phone, video player, email, pda, and it is. It's pretty sweet...I could give you links but you've probably read about it everywhere. Here are some links anyway...and one picture. http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/The second thing is they came out with was Apple TV, which

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-74914042790529788382007-01-09T14:28:00.000-08:002007-01-09T14:33:00.707-08:00

The most connected guy in Silicone Valley, Auren Hoffman apparently, has a really great blog, he recently posted a link to this survey of high school students and college freshman. The survey is extremely comprehensive and worth a look.Check it out here.Otherwise, I downloaded the file (which is a powerpoint) and you can get it here.Study:The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2005By

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-9703030533119830602007-01-09T12:03:00.001-08:002007-01-09T12:03:54.186-08:00

Some good news on Oil is always nice...http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070109/oil_prices.html?.v=10Lower temperatures has increased inventories of crude oil and lower usage of heating oil in the Northeast dropped oil futures trading by over $2.00 a barrel in afternoon trading yesterday...The economy is undergoing a correction to inflation as base metals and commodities go down. This will lead to some

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-2467356532804628542007-01-09T07:19:00.000-08:002007-01-09T07:20:36.716-08:00

"OPERATION SCREWBALL"IN MONSEY! In Conjunction with & LOUD, LEGAL, LAWFUL PROTEST AGAINST NETUREI KARTA'S ATTENDANCE AT HOLOCAUST DENIERS CONFERENCE WHEN: SUNDAY JANUARY 7 1 P.M. WHERE: NETUREI KARTA HEADQUARTERS 102 SADDLE RIVER ROAD MONSEY, NEW YORK - CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-48939674327410764022007-01-09T05:36:00.000-08:002007-01-09T05:38:03.360-08:00

SHALOM TV! As reported on the Daily Show and Bangitout.comhttp://www.bangitout.com/videos/viewvideo.php?a=445

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-20111777319197293152007-01-09T05:25:00.000-08:002007-01-09T05:35:30.329-08:00

The all-new Chevy Volt Concept, now if GM got something like this into production, it could change the company....You can get a good greeny write-up here...and more pictures...but heres another teaser...

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-18268137240706690822007-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:002007-01-08T16:43:03.055-08:00

No one is reading this anyway, so I am just going to start posting about politics, music, art, my life, religion, pretty much anything that's on my mind....Check out some of the additions on the side panel1. The Wallstrip - If it works here and the content is interesting, I'm gonna leave it on (www.wallstrip.com)2. Radio Economics - This is a cool economics blog, if you are an economics dork like

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-86250979065812698152007-01-08T13:13:00.000-08:002007-01-08T13:40:21.768-08:00

Isn't it nice that we keep borrowing and borrowing? Check out the following articles that highlights the recent jump in November in consumer borrowing. It seems we just can't get enough.http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070108/consumer_credit.html?.v=4The only thing I can say is that people's excuse may be the holidays, I think credit card debt is a problem in this country, a large one, but I think its

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-47777113961227673462007-01-08T05:38:00.001-08:002007-01-08T06:29:04.186-08:00

Happy New Year! Alright, I'm a little late, but either way... we received some good news this year as base metals and oil declined and we received a nice jobs update on Friday 1/5/07. Even though, retail sales declined, the broad US economy may be in for a softer landing than previously anticipated as inflation pressure begins to cool down. Housing is housing, and the carnage has just begun in

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1166557005379070512006-12-19T10:28:00.000-08:002006-12-19T11:36:46.713-08:00

Last night, I'm relaxing from a day of arguing with people over how to make admiralty brass tubing, and I flip over to CNBC. They are running a recap show of 2006. Basically, they are lining up one no-name, not important pundit after another who is talking about how great the market is going to be in 2007 and how the PE (price to earnings) ratio of 16 of the combined Dow components is below the

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1166043225495379222006-12-13T11:49:00.000-08:002006-12-13T14:40:35.890-08:00

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged yesterday and the market responded with minimal relief. The Federal Reserve also said that inflation is still higher than they would like and I believe they are concerned about the devaluation of the dollar. Some drop is okay and a gradual slide is fine, if it corrects the trade imbalance a little, but a drastic slide could be

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1165287842562919252006-12-04T16:51:00.000-08:002006-12-13T14:40:06.806-08:00

Today some bad economic data came out from the housing sector and the dollar continued the slide it started three years ago. This is starting to weigh on the minds of economists and as politicians as they seek to explain or pander to their respective audiences. I believe it means that we are looking at a slowing of growth in the economy and continued weakness in the housing market. There may

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1164041245773558882006-11-20T07:22:00.000-08:002006-12-04T19:04:21.723-08:00

The London Stock Exchange rejected the $5 Billion bid by the NASDAQ to buy it outright and create the across the pond alliance that NASDAQ wanted. CNNmoney.com reports it here.Why is this important? Two reasons.1. Twenty years after the "Big Bang" (London's massive financial markets deregulation), the LSE realizes that merging with the NASDAQ could result in Sarbannes-Oxley rearing its ugly

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1163654556704446932006-11-15T20:30:00.000-08:002006-11-22T09:51:58.580-08:00

Let this guy in our country...click to see his website, he's awesome...Congress is set to begin arguing over increasing the number of H1-B visas. This is a piece of legislation of monumental importance, something that the President and the Dems agree on. We need more skilled engineers and science people in this country. There is a talent war going on around the world and by restricting entry

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1163564945603689202006-11-14T20:09:00.000-08:002006-11-19T17:39:13.036-08:00

So the dems win and the Big 3 finally get the meeting with the White House they've been waiting for. Hank Paulson, Cheney, and Bush sit down and talk about what it means to make a car in America. It means an extra $1000 per car in health care for General Motors. I think they boiled it down to three things:1. You have got to do some thing about the health care crisis in this country.2. You have

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1163480345724013252006-11-13T20:43:00.000-08:002006-11-19T17:39:22.776-08:00

People are writing at long length about the recent take over of both houses of congress (even if by a slim margin in the Senate) by the Democrats and what this means for the economy. Consensus has pretty much decided that due to a Republican White House, we are looking at two years of gridlock. There goes reforming social security.Well at least some policy could be decided that may have a long

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1162327547589753092006-10-31T12:10:00.000-08:002006-11-19T17:39:30.640-08:00

So the housing market is finally on its knees. However, I wouldn't say people are really bleeding or jumping out of windows yet. The consumer debt overhang is a fun problem we will have to deal with in 2007 and 2008. Recently sales of existing homes in September clocked in at 6.16 million, down a bit from Augusts number of 6.3 million, and down a bit more from last September's 7.4 million. Oh

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1161958121063456202006-10-27T07:06:00.000-07:002006-11-19T17:39:43.596-08:00

People don't seem to understand what it takes to turn around the Titanic to keep it from hitting an iceberg...bad analogy. Turning around the Exxon Valdez...wait, wrong again...GM posted a before special charges, before tax gain of $.93/share in comparison to analyst estimates of $.49/share. That is a serious difference. I've been bullish on General Motors since the stock has been at $16/share

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1160116030599673152006-10-05T23:26:00.000-07:002006-11-19T17:39:56.696-08:00

General Motors breaks off negotiations with Renault-Nissan...Here's Tom Walsh's take on it from the Detroit Free Press.

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1159985062959440802006-10-04T11:04:00.000-07:002006-11-19T17:40:11.500-08:00

Labor in this country is continuing to undergo tremendous changes as the new economic environment is weakening the hand of the union. Some say this has been going on since the airlines and steel companies first began their domino fall into backruptcy, but no one predicted that the auto makers would be giving such buyouts...Now their suppliers are following suit. Nobody wants to be left with a

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1159906664988431432006-10-03T11:50:00.000-07:002006-10-03T13:17:45.213-07:00

News that is a little bit of a big deal...Dow hits all time high!I don't know how I feel about it...oil prices touch $59/barrel...Anyway, articles about this are all over the place...I wonder if it even makes sense for me to regurgitate stuff like this...

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1159368415177023112006-09-27T07:22:00.000-07:002006-11-19T17:40:25.420-08:00

SEC Rule 10b-5Let me paint a picture for you. You are the CEO and CFO of a major Fortune 500 corporation. You know that one of the things that has made you a darling on wall street is perception. You know that you have had a tremendous amount of success due to the deregulation of parts of the electricity and gas markets and have invented a genius trading platform. You also know that due to

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1159307231107236662006-09-26T14:22:00.000-07:002006-09-26T14:47:11.166-07:00

Hey, Delphi just announced another 1400 people took buyouts...bringing the total to 20,100. Crazy, right?I feel bad for everyone involved, but this is the restructuring Detroit need 20 years ago. I feel like the heavens are releasing tied down capital. Will some of this money leave Detroit? Yes. Will this be a drain on the economy? Yes. Will Detroit recover? It always does. Is this question

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1159304655179306332006-09-26T13:47:00.000-07:002006-09-26T15:09:28.163-07:00

"William Sansinger with a six month sentence..." http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060926/enron_fastow.html?.v=38So in the Dylan song, William Sansinger killed poor Hattie Carrol, etc., etc., but really what did Fastow do, besides be the little scapegoat for Enron. Wait, I take that back what did Enron do exactly? Besides do some of the most ingenius financial engineering ever? Wait, let's take the flip

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158802652425047752006-09-20T18:28:00.000-07:002006-09-25T06:16:03.560-07:00

I am somewhat responding to Joe's prayer that housing might turn around. The NAHB Housing Index is at a 15 year low. If you use this index as a leading indicator v. the SPX, you will find something very frightening. I will try to attach the chart tomorrow but lag the SPX 12 months and you will find these 2 indices highly correlated. If history repeats, where the housing index is today would

Justin T. Goldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15848002663843446193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158780454199194142006-09-20T12:22:00.000-07:002006-09-20T12:38:02.606-07:00

Federal Reserve and Oil and Economic News, Galore... figured I could give you some links on this...Fed Leaves Key Interest Rate Unchanged - NY Times Article Crude Oil Falls Again - Bloomberg ArticleThe economy is slowing down, hopefully the housing market won't send it into a tailspin...

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158776936872050052006-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:002006-09-20T11:30:33.496-07:00

Thanks to the illustrious Golden J for clueing me in on this story. I have long bemoaned the run up in commodities since it affected our little business and blamed those nasty hedge fund traders, I thought they would get theirs when the market turned...However, I thought the bloodbath was going to be in commodities like copper and gold, but natural gas took such a nosedive last week that it

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158776064100832302006-09-20T11:13:00.000-07:002006-09-20T11:14:24.100-07:00

At least someone appreciates my alma mater...http://www.bus.umich.edu/NewsRoom/ArticleDisplay.asp?news_id=8712What do those morons at US News & World report know about business schools anyway?

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158775569842476222006-09-20T10:56:00.000-07:002006-09-20T11:06:19.750-07:00

With recent economic news out last week, all signs point to the fed keeping rates at their current level. Oil has settled in the low sixties and prices are moderating.Read the AP article:http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060920/fed_interest_rates.html?.v=5It's like my man McManus from the Usual Suspects said..."Falling energy prices, further weakening of the housing sector and a few tame inflation reports

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158695507414484572006-09-19T12:13:00.000-07:002006-09-20T06:35:27.766-07:00

In last week's issue of the new yorker, a fascinating article came out in regards to a new field of study called neuroeconomics. The field of neuroeconomics questions one of the most basic and traditional principals of economics. That the market participant is rational in his decision making. The article claims that certain situations and decisions cause overactivity in the frontal region of

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158692792774491052006-09-19T12:05:00.000-07:002006-09-20T06:36:21.846-07:00

Housing construction down, more bad news for the housing sector, but more good news for those looking for a deflation of the housing market...http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060919/economy.html?.v=7

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158678709456561892006-09-19T07:10:00.000-07:002006-10-05T23:28:32.930-07:00

Some economic news out today...Housing Starts Drop 6%, more than economists expectedhttp://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060919/housing_starts.html?.v=2Inflation pressures moderate as wholesale prices edge up only 0.1%http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060919/economy.html?.v=6Its now beginning to look like we may see a interest rate cut before we see another rate increase. The remaining concern is the lack of equity in

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158621515977573762006-09-18T15:07:00.000-07:002006-09-20T06:44:33.233-07:00

It's a Sufjan Stevens lyric....Given the fact that I am a Detroit lover and former long time resident of the great city of Detroit, I wanted to talk about the implications of the recent layoffs of white collar workers at Ford and the general mass buyouts in the auto industry.The auto industry always offers us incredible lessons in globalization, labor costs, unions, and manufacturing in general

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158328613893344332006-09-15T06:36:00.000-07:002006-09-20T06:51:02.410-07:00

What a day of economic news!Consumer Price Index - up 0.2%Core Consumer Price Index - up 0.2%Industrial Capacity Utilization - 85.4%Oil - under $63.00 a barrelNatural Gas - under $5 per btuWhat does it all mean, well, it means the consumer in America will be getting a break from high energy prices, but overall it means the consumer has slowed down and hidden his pocketbook. Finally the interest

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34414948.post-1158260721664048072006-09-14T11:40:00.000-07:002006-09-20T07:23:25.163-07:00

Hello, My name is Joseph J. Ravitsky. I am 26 years old and have been working at a family startup for about four years. I have created this blog to discuss several topics:1. Economics2. Small business, startups, and the young entrepreneur3. Work-life balance and goals of the "Young Professional" in today's economyBy the overuse of the word "Young," you can probably guess that these topics will

Joseph J. Ravitskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210575024752384474noreply@blogger.com0