Morning Journal-More government shenanigans

Economics

This Week’s Data

April new home sales rose 11,000 versus expectations of a 7,000 increase.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/05/housing-permits-starts-completions-2/

Weekly jobless claims came in flat as anticipated.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/05/weekly-initial-unemployment-claims_24.html

April durable goods orders rose 0.2% versus estimates of up 0.5%; ex transportation, they fell 0.6% versus forecasts of an increase of 0.7%.

Other
Leading economic indicators in other countries (short):
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/05/leading-economic-indicators.html

The latest from Charles Biderman (4 minute video):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/biderman-bad-data-and-chinas-recession

Politics

Domestic

The debate over Romney’s record on ‘jobs’ (medium):
http://www.nationalreview.com/author/56454/latest#

More government shenanigans (medium):
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/05/23/jaczko-the-jerk-harry-reids-sexist-crony-gets-the-boot/

And (short):
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/05/obama-administration-ignores-its-own-warnings-opens-up-to-hollywood-on-bin-laden-raid.php

Tax cuts for the rich (medium):
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/05/23/a_book_for_republicans

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

Tiffany reported quarterly earnings per share at $.68 versus expectations of $.69.

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.