Not much happened yesterday. The Dow fell 47 points. The newspapers attributed the reversal to surprisingly low consumer confidence numbers. Apparently, consumers aren’t so sure this crisis is over. As we reported yesterday, they’re saving money… maybe even at an 8% rate.

Is the government creating another subprime-mortgage bubble?

How do you like this recovery? Pretty good, huh? Except for the jobs, of course. And except for the retail sales. And except for the foreclosures… and house prices. And incomes. And consumer prices. And business profits. It’s like a female impersonator… just like a real woman in every way, except for the essential ones.

Is it time to buy a house? Depends…

While the dumb money is chasing the rally in stocks; the smart money is keeping a close eye on the economy. Bill Bonner has been hammering home this point in the Daily Reckoning. We’ve been doing the same here at Notes. (Consider it a friendly warning.)

Internally, the Japanese are still not big spenders. The population is not only ageing… it’s shrinking. That’s not happening in the US.

Buenos Aires, Argentina Is the rally still on? We’re not sure. Wednesday, the Dow fell 83 points…after a weak bounce on Tuesday. We expected the rally to last until June and to take the Dow back to the 10,000 range. But anything could happen.

“Substantial doubt,” say auditors at Deloitte & Touche. They’ve been studying GMs figures. The numbers make them wonder whether the automaker can continue as a “going concern.”

Latest data from the housing market shows that the misery is set to continue for a while yet. But Christian Hill says investors can still make money by shorting two real estate specific ETFs (IYR, VNQ). A more speculative play is the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares (NYSE:SRS) inverse ETF.