Thursday, November 15, 2007

Financial Leverage



This shows the total credit market instrument liabilities (mortgages, credit cards, ...) divided by the total deposits and credit market instrument assets (treasuries, corporate and foreign bonds, ...) as seen in table B.100 Balance Sheet of Households and Nonprofit Organizations within the Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States.

This also shows the stock market (as represented by the Dow Jones Industrial Average and adjusted for inflation). This data is current as of the 2nd quarter of 2007. A lot has happened since then though.

Note what happens if leverage ever stops increasing (much less falls). What might cause that? Oh, I don't know. Maybe a credit crisis would do it.

See Also:
Calculated Risk: Downey Financial Non-Performing Assets

Source Data:
FRB: Flow of Funds Accounts
BLS: Consumer Price Index
Yahoo Finance: DJIA Historical Data

As seen on Yahoo's website, historical chart data and daily updates provided by Commodity Systems, Inc. (CSI).

Disclaimer: Yahoo provided a spreadsheet download link so it is fairly clear that I was free to download the data. Since I am not actually sharing the raw data and I am crediting the sources, I am assuming that I am not infringing on anyone's copyright.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here you go Mark.


- A slowdown in the US economy in coming months could cause a sharp drop in Chinese exports that could cut China's growth significantly, a research report by the Ministry of Commerce warned.

"If demand in the US drops further, Chinese exporters will be devastated by a rapid and continuous fall in orders," according to report, written by the Chinese ministry's policy research department and published on the ministry's website.

"A global economic slowdown will be the biggest challenge to China's economy next year. If exports see a sharp decline, it could suggest a turning point for this round of our economic growth," the report said.

"US interest rates are moving in the opposite direction from our interest rates and this will offset our efforts to control domestic inflation and overheating property and stock markets, increasing the difficulty of (overall) macro-economic control," the report said.

It also warned that continued turmoil in developed countries' financial markets will drive more hot money into China as a safe haven, further challenging government financial control.

Official newspapers have already reported some of the findings of the ministry's study.

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6394345&action=article

Kevin

Stagflationary Mark said...

Kevin,

I've been checking the Port of Los Angeles website for information on October's traffic for the past few days. The information is scheduled to be released on or around the 15th of the month.

They are keeping me on pins and needles (which are also useful for popping bubbles, in theory).

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who is a longshoreman at the Port of Long Beach (CA). He said that, for example, on a recent Friday night where he works they would normally use 1400 guys, but lately have needed only half that. Guys used ot working 4 or 5 days a week are working 1 or 2. He said there just wasn't enough work.

Stagflationary Mark said...

anonymous,

November's traffic is typically a bit lighter just because most of the Christmas traffic should have already reached us, but your anecdotal evidence sounds extremely light.

That doesn't bode well at all for October's traffic, which we should be seeing shortly.