Almost All Consumption Goes to 10 Corporations

All these brands on the sides are connected to the ten brands inside.

U.S. Consumer Confidence on 5 Year High

U.S. consumer confidence increased to reach a five year high. Will this mean the consumer will spend more in the near future?

Global Housing Indicators (April 2012)

The Economist has made an overview of updated global house-price indicators. From left to right: compared to a year ago prices rose the most in Canada, Singapore and Austria. In Ireland, Spain and Denmark prices declined the most. Compared to when the crises started house prices have even still increased 72 percent in Hong Kong and 34 percent in Singapore. They have declined 48 percent in Ireland and 30 percent in the United States.

Housing prices cannot easily be compared country by country. For example if house prices rise with income this may reflect a fundamental increase. If house prices increase a lot more than income this is probably not sustainable. If you compare house prices to rents and income per country you can make a better comparison. Compared to rents house prices are the most overvalued in Canada, New Zealand and Belgium. They are the most undervalued in Japan and Germany, and surprisingly also in the United States. Compared to income house prices are the most overvalued in Belgium and France. They are the most undervalued in Japan, China and the United States.

In total (average of rental and income) prices are most overvalued in Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, Belgium and France. They are the least overvalued in Japan, The United States and Germany.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

Market Share for (Groups of) Car Brands in Western Europe (2011)

You can see that Volkswagen Group as car manufacturing group had the largest market share of western Europe in 2011 with 23 percent for new car registrations. PSA-group (Peugeot and Citroen) came in second with 12,5 percent. Renault Group third (10 percent) and GM fourth (9 percent). Volkswagen was the biggest as stand alone brand, followed by Renault.

Reuters

US, Euro Zone & Japan: Consumer Confidence At Very Low Levels

Graph from the OECD Economic outlook november 2011.

This picture shows the consumer confidence in the United States, Japan and in the Euro Area. The zero line shows the average in the time interval pictured.

OECD Economic Outlook

Components Of US Real GDP Since 2007

This chart from Business Insider shows the components of the change in quarterly real GDP for the United States since 2007. In the last quarter personal consumption has stalled dramatically.

Business Insider

QE2 In Relation To Leading Indicators

Business Insider made four charts comparing Quantitative Easing 2 with unemployment, consumer credit, housing market and inflation expectations. During QE2 Unemployment, Consumer Credit and the Housing Market didn't improve under QE2. Inflation expectations on the other hand did improve.

Source: Business Insider