Today’s 4-1-1

4 Things Worth Reading:

• Lured Into “the Optimistic Unknown” – Josh Brown

 

• The Absolute Return Rip-Off – Larry Swedroe

 

• Putting Emerging Market Declines in Perspective – A Wealth of Common Sense

 

• Joan Robinson on Economists – Ramanan

1 Data Summary:

• Personal income and outlays showed higher levels of spending and flattish levels in income growth.  Personal income growth was 0% month over month while spending was up 0.4%.  It’s no wonder that we’re beginning to see household debt levels growing again – the US consumer is obviously back to financing spending through debt.  This is obviously sustainable for long periods of time, but also becomes problematic during a recession when cash flow growth slows and suddenly that debt can’t be serviced.

 

• Chicago PMI was 59.6 vs expectations of 59.5.  That was down from the prior revised reading of 60.8.  All in all, this is a solid report as new orders were up marginally and employment was down marginally.

1 Video Worth Watching:

Ray Dalio on ego, the monetary system and other stuff….