What's Going Right - and Is Under-Reported?

What Stories Aren’t Being Told? was my most commented piece since the inception of this blog, and I thank readers. But Dr. Jeff pointed out in the comments, the tone was on of extreme negativity. What? Is there nothing going right that is under-reported? Here are a few ideas from me:

• Credit spreads are below average in general.
• Energy prices have moderated, particularly for those who buy natural gas at spot rates.
• There is still very good foreign demand for Treasury auctions. Oh, Treasury yields are low.
• On the low/middle end of housing, where there are conforming mortgages, the market has come into equilibrium, where bargains are balancing out more foreclosures in the future. This may not apply in the really hot markets of 2005.
• Dividend decreases seem to have stopped.
• Corporate balance sheets seem to be more able to handle additional pressure.
• The insurance industry seems to be in very good shape, aside from that faker, AIG.

Okay, the same as last time, I offer this to my readers in the comments section — what is going right now, particularly in what is not being reported. It can be small or large issues. Let me know. Last last piece got a lot of play, even the comments, so let me know what you think.

Comments

[THofler:]

The share prices of traditional and trust preferred stocks of many fine firms were mercilessly hammered in late 2008 and early 2009 by what I suspect were aggressive short sellers capitalizing on the illiquidity of these securities.

These share prices have recovered wonderfully and nearly half of my gains since the March bottom have been in these stocks. Some of my holdings have yields over 10% relative to their basis. If only I had been a more aggressive buyer!

Some of my heavily discounted picks are not perpetuals, and will mature in my lifetime (I hope) also adding to my returns.

OK, this is hardly hidden information, but it seems to me that the preferred space is largely ignored.

Sep 15 04:12 PM

[TinyTim:]

Obama just came out and told a bunch of bankers to their faces that they will pay for their mistakes in the future.

Sep 15 07:43 PM

[Fussy and G...:]

Two things very good:
1) The incredible and completely opaque international derivatives markets appear to be getting real discipline and real liquidity. 2) It appears that price discovery will be available to all once again as High Frequency Trading goes outlaw.

Sep 22 12:02 AM

[jimmy46:]

I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but it is very under reported:

The sinking US dollar makes assets priced in dollars worth less to people using a different currency.
Here's a point of view from Canada:

Although most Americans don’t realize it, their money has lost a huge chunk of its value over the past few years
(about 30% against the Canadian dollar, and much more against the Pound and Euro),
so everything priced in American dollars (including their houses, planes, boats, cars, and shares) is worth less than it used to be:
a U.S. stock that was worth USD 100/share five years ago has to be priced at about USD 125/share now just to break even in Canadian terms (more in Europe),
and that’s still providing $0 capital gain.

Used planes are priced primarily in US dollars, so their real value has been tumbling in recent years,
even if the US sticker price looks about the same.

As a result, we Canadian airplane owners are taking a bath —
the only good news is that since our planes are worth so much less, they’re cheaper to insure (it’s also cheap to buy up, if you’re so inclined).

Sep 30 04:19 PM

[jimmy46:]

Forgot to mention in the last post,

An article yesterday said DEFLATION in Japan is increasing and every monthly number for the last 6 months has shown DEFLATION.

That's consumer price deflation, previous post was about asset deflation.

Sep 30 04:22 PM