Economics Update

Graph courtesy of Wikipedia

Well, we have some legitimately good news, that the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 39.2 in April, a 12.3 point gain from March, though with the rather neutral year of 1985 being indexed to 100, 39.2 still sucks, as is clear from the graph.

Additionally, while the home prices continued to fall, they are falling at a slightly slower rate, or as Atrios so amusingly notes, "Positive 2nd Derivative!!!"^*

House prices are still falling, and the rate of decline is the noisiest metric, unless you want to do the change in rate of decline (unless you want to go to something like the 3rd derivative, called "jerk" when dealing with motion).

I would wait and see for a few months before jumping back into the market.

Meanwhile, the flu concerns continue to push oil down, though the positive economic data above has driven the dollar down too, because there is less of a flight to safety.

^*If you don't get the joke because you are not a math geek, don't despair....At least you are not a math geek, which has to count for something.