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Reuters Business News: Fed’s Bernanke: inflation risks to the upside - MSN Money
The U.S. economy is poised to expand at a moderate rate and “uncomfortably high” core inflation should ease, but price risks are tilted mostly to the upside, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday. “Over the next year or so, the economy appears likely to expand at a moderate rate, close to or modestly below the economy’s long-run sustainable pace,” he said at a luncheon sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation. 

“Core inflation is expected to slow gradually from its recent level,” Bernanke said. Still, he added, “the risks to the (inflation) forecast seem primarily to the upside. Given the current level of inflation, a failure of inflation to moderate as expected would be especially troublesome,” Bernanke said.

U.S. Treasury debt prices fell and stocks trimmed gains as financial markets took the speech as a sign the Fed is not close to cutting interest rates as it remains focused on ensuring inflation pressures abate. “There is no daylight within his statement to indicate any hint of a rate cut,” said Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist at Miller, Tabak & Co in New York. “It seems the Fed is taking no chances with respect to the gains it has made in fighting inflation and is making tough talk in the face of a decline of inflation expectations and slower growth.”

The U.S. central bank chief warned that “substantial uncertainties” surround the outlooks for growth and inflation. “Whether any further policy action against inflation will be required depends on the incoming data and in particular on how these data affect the (Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee’s) medium-term forecasts of both inflation and output growth,” Bernanke said. The effects of the housing market slowdown are likely to persist into next year but there is little evidence that weakness in housing markets is spilling over into consumer spending or broad measures of employment, he said.

Home Values Are Up. Repeat: Up

Would you believe that home values are up? According to a BusinessWeek Online article they are.

Here’s a snippet:

“According to Zillow.com, home values rose 4.8% in the third quarter in the 36 major metropolitan areas covered by its Zindex. That may come as a surprise if you’ve been reading about falling sales prices, but there’s a good explanation for the discrepancy. I think that while Zillow’s number may make things look a little better than they really are, the median sales price numbers from the Census Bureau and the National Assn. of Realtors probably make things look a little worse than they really are.

Obviously one difference is that the Zindex covers just 36 metro areas, not the whole country. But the more interesting difference is that Zillow’s index includes updated estimates of the values of all homes in an area, not just the ones that were sold. That’s important because the sales price indexes can be skewed by changes in the mix of homes sold in a period. If for some reason there are relatively few high-priced homes sold during a quarter, that will skew a sales price median downward.”

Something to consider with all the doom and gloom and bubble bursters out there

Two monitors are better than one

Microsoft has a nice article espousing the virtues of a dual monitor set-up. I have used this before I switched to a 24″ widescreen format LCD which serves the same purposes. Take a look and see what you think. Productivity gains make it worth the investment.

You can never have enough screen space, especially when organizing and working on your digital pictures. Instead of buying a larger monitor, if you’re using Windows XP, you can buy an inexpensive second monitor and connect it to your computer—instantly doubling your desktop space. Flat panel LCD monitors look great and will save room on your desk; CRT monitors also work well and can be less expensive.

The New York Times sings the praises of expanding your screen real estate across two monitors, using two video cards or an upgraded card with two outputs:

“Survey after survey shows that whether you measure your productivity in facts researched, alien spaceships vaporized, or articles written, adding an extra monitor will give your output a considerable boost — 20 percent to 30 percent, according to a survey by Jon Peddie Research” 

Others have reported simialr findings such as:

“Recently many businesses have started using a dual-monitor setup for their employees in order to increase productivity. Many studies claim that having a dual monitor setup can increase productivity in the workplace by 20%-50%. By using two monitors the available screen area for running applications is effectively doubled which creates all kinds of benefits.”

Which ever route you decide to go, I suggest the dual monitor or very large format monitor. You will find the experience worthwhile.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for October 2006:

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,535,000. This is 6.3 percent (±1.2%) below the revised September rate of 1,638,000 and is 28.0 percent (±1.2%) below the October 2005 estimate of 2,131,000. Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 1,173,000; this is 3.8 percent (±1.3%) below the September figure of 1,219,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 294,000 in October.

HOUSING STARTS

Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,486,000. This is 14.6 percent (±7.6%) below the revised September estimate of 1,740,000 and is 27.4 percent (±5.3%) below the October 2005 rate of 2,046,000. Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 1,177,000; this is 15.9 percent (±7.4%) below the September figure of 1,400,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 266,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately-owned housing completions in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,953,000. This is 3.8 percent (±7.9%)below the revised September estimate of 2,031,000 and is 0.7 percent (±7.5%)below the October 2005 rate of 1,967,000. Single-family housing completions in October were at a rate of 1,561,000; this is 8.3 percent (±7.6%) below the September figure of 1,702,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 348,000.

The full report can be found here