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The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities
Books: Text Books: Economics: Item 8
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The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunitiesby Bernard Baumohl
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful: Are they real, or are the government numbers?, April 4, 2005 Reviewer:Thomas Mongle (Houston) - Bernard Baumohl's "The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities" starts off with a riff on how investors got sold out by their "expert" advisors and even the stock-issuing companies themselves during the recent crash. He contends investors are in the need for better guidance. The solution, he says, is an individual investor do-it-yourself approach to fundamental macroeconomic analysis based on the reported data that underlies both the domestic and international economy. Make no mistake, this is one of the most useful and fundamentally sound readings of how economies really work you will ever see - much more revealing and educational than a raft of academic books purporting to teach us how the theoretical economy is supposed to function. This book magnifies the real workings of an economy (daily, weekly, monthly) - the inputs that produce the outputs - and how the data generated from those workings is reported, analyzed, and used. Baumohl lists 4 weekly, 43 monthly, and 9 quarterly releases of data in short outline form along with what they are, when they're reported, and how they're computed, along with their expected effect on the stock market, interest rates, and the dollar. His goal, he states, is to answer the question of which indicators pack the greatest wallop in the financial markets and which ones are known for doing the best job predicting where the economy is going, thus influencing investments. He assigns a relevance rating to each of the indicators. It's easy to get overwhelmed quickly and Baumohl is right when he laments that "There is too much economic information out there, and not all of it is useful." He should have added "not all that accurate" either. As you leaf your way through the compilations, you come to realize that the "numbers" that move the markets are frequently incomplete. The queried respondents upon whose businesses and operations are being used to create data are notoriously negligent in meeting reporting deadlines which brings up the question of whether we ever get a full reading of what's being reported. Thus the need for "restating" next time around. But by "the next time," those numbers are irreverent and relegated to history. Question: So, was that big market move last month based on bad info, and if so, will it correct itself when the old data is corrected? Not likely, because a new set of questionable data just got reported and is now at center stage. Deja vu all over again. For all the questions it raises, this is a good attempt at trying to get a grip on the maze of financial accounting we're still trying to clean up, but it points out more holes than it fills. One thing Baumohl doesn't address which would be a good subject for a follow-on book is that indicators don't have the same influence consistently through time. Each seems to have a life all its own. From the body counts (Vietnam) of the late 1960s, to the oil price increases of the mid-1970s, to the prime rate increases of the late 1970s, right on through the monthly deficit numbers of today, one influential indicator periodically rises to become the focal point of the press and the Wall Street pundits. Relative importance comes and goes with the seasons, and it would have been good to see a 40-year chart clearly delineating how dominant indicators of the time influenced direction of the various markets. Another issue not confronted is the role played by hedonic influences on various indicators. How should we adjust for increased computer RAM or safety features of automobiles or effectiveness of medical treatment? A third question concerns whether the market's reaction operates in a vacuum. Is the day the report comes out merely one more in a series of "jolts" or does it become the tipping point that truly reverses a trend which was waiting for an ignition spark? A final observation sums up the underlying but unspoken concern about the whole system of governmental collected and reported figures. The world's most important investor (Alan Greenspan) obviously relies on these figures to make financial and monetary decisions. It is disconcerting to read how many of these indicators are less than what one would expect them to be. Whether Greenspan can make the correct decisions based on sometimes questionable statistics is a question that perhaps will never be answered. In the mean time, we can all learn a lot about the "numbers" that have an increasingly important impact on our daily lives, to say nothing of our investments. Read it and consider your options. For a different angle on how the markets work see Ron Insana's excellent "The Message of the Markets" (2000) and "Trendwatching" (2002) which deal with the reality of prices rather than suppositions.
Product Review
"Baumohl, a former economics reporter for Time magazine, has written a tremendously useful source on economic indicators. Using examples from real life, he starts out by explaining in detail the importance of these indicators to the investing community and defining the terms used when discussing measures of economic performance. The most valuable section of the book provides detailed descriptions of over 40 economic indicators, among them employment, consumer spending, national output and inventories, housing and construction, foreign trade, and productivity and wages. Baumohl considers a variety of factors when describing each indicator, such as what exactly it measures, how it is computed, where to find the relevant report on the web, the day and time this report is released, the source of the information, and how often the information is revised. He also discusses the market impact of these indicators on bonds, stocks, and currency. The book ends with profiles of international indicators and a listing of where to locate them on the web. Bottom Line: Although this book is marketed as a tool for investors and is not organized like a typical reference book, it belongs in the reference collection because it explains so clearly what the various economic indicators are and how to locate data about them. Recommended for all libraries. " —Stacey Marien, American Univ. Lib., Washington, DC
Book Description
Every day, stocks, bonds, and currencies bounce wildly in response to new economic indicators. Money managers obsess over those statistics, because they provide crucial clues about the future of the economy and the financial markets.
Now you can use these indicators to make smarter investment decisions, just like the professionals do.You don't need an economics degree, or a CPA just this easy-to-use book.
Former TIME Magazine senior economics reporter Bernard Baumohl has done the impossible: he's made economic indicators fascinating.
Using real-world examples and stories,Baumohl illuminates every U.S. and foreign indicator that matters.Where to find them.What they look like. What the insiders know about their track records. And exactly how to interpret them.
Whether you're an investor,broker, portfolio manager, researcher, journalist,or student, you'll find this book indispensable.Nobody can predict the future with certainty. But The Secrets of Economic Indicators will get you as close as humanly possible.
What the numbers really mean
to stocks, bonds, rates, currencies, and you
Ahead of the curve: spotting turning points
Calling recessions and recoveries in time to profit from them
Leading indicators: where's the economy really heading
Decoding initial unemployment claims, housing starts, the yield curve, and other predictors
Beyond the borders
Why foreign indicators are increasingly important—and how to use them
Making sense of indicators in conflict
What to do when the numbers disagree
Finding the data
Free web resources for the latest economic data
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