Morning Journal, A lesson on private equity investment

Economics
This Week’s Data

The Fed released its most recent Beige Book. The tone of this latest report was noticeably more upbeat than its recent additions with positive narratives on the consumer, autos and manufacturing. Housing, it notes, is still sluggish; but inflationary pressures remain under control.

Weekly jobless claims rose 27,000 versus expectations of an increase of 3,000.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/01/weekly-initial-unemployment-claims_12.html

December retail sales advanced 0.1% versus estimates of up 0.2%; ex autos, sales fell 0.2% versus forecasts of up 0.2%.


Other

The problem with disposable personal income (hint: it is too low):
http://www.capitalspectator.com/archives/2012/01/a_decisive_mome.html#more

A great discussion by Gary Kaminski on private equity and how the model works (4 minute video):
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000066884

The latest Pulse of Commerce Index (short):
http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Pulse-of-Commerce-Index.php

Politics

Domestic

Victor Davis Hanson on Obama’s vision (medium/long):
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/287704/obama-s-postmodern-vision-victor-davis-hanson

International

More analysis of the developing Iranian confrontation (medium):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-iran-oh-no-not-again

EU pension liabilities are more than $39 trillion (medium):
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/europe-s-39-trillion-pension-threat-grows-as-regional-economies-sputter.html

Some thoughts on the eventual outcome of a Greek debt restructuring (medium):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/coercive-greek-restructuring-now-imminent-ubs-explains-what-it-means-europe-hint-nothing-good

Rough outlook for China (medium):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-enters-danger-zone-socgen-presents-four-critical-themes

Steve Cook received his education in investments from Harvard, where he earned an MBA, New York University, where he did post graduate work in economics and financial analysis and the CFA Institute, where he earned the Chartered Financial Analysts designation in 1973. His 40 years of investment experience includes institutional portfolio management at Scudder, Stevens and Clark and Bear Stearns. Steve's goal at Strategic Stock Investments is to help other investors build wealth and benefit from the investing lessons he learned the hard way.