Green shoots scenario


A bit of good news to go with the bad. New unemployment claims are down in the past few months, with the moving average for monthly claims dropping to just over 600,000, about 37,000 below the all-time high reached in the early spring of 2009. That doesn't mean they aren't high, but at least we're not in a screaming nosedive.

For the first time in 10 months, the International Energy Association raised its oil demand forecast. That helped send oil prices higher, true, but it also is a clear sign that the global industrial production machine has bottomed and could reverse in the near term, if it has not already done so.

Lastly, the U.S. Treasury FINALLY decided to regulate pay of executives at ailing banks. Frankly, they should regulate pay of every company that received TARP and still enjoys FDIC guarantee coverage. I mean, there's no such thing as a free lunch, right? Sure, some "talented" execs might leave. But perhaps a little less talent might be just the thing for reverting the banking sector from a cowboy outpost to the staid business it's supposed to be.

Alex Salkever is the Director of Research at Piqqem.com, a stock prediction community powered by the Wisdom of Crowds.

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