Month: April 2014
The first estimate of Q1 2014 GDP growth came in at a miserable 0.1%, surprising even the most pessimistic. The good news, household spending was up 3% and boosted GDP by 2.04%, its third best contribution in four years! The…
Read MoreWith his Senate confirmation guaranteed, Stan Fischer will soon become Vice Chairman of the Fed. He brings spectacular credentials. He was most recently Governor of the Bank of Israel where he did a masterful job of aggressively slashing interest rates…
Read MoreThe federal deficit is shrinking fast and is expected to be just $492 billion or 2.8% of GDP in FY 2014. Similarly, state government finances are also rapidly improving. In FY 2013, state governments collected a record $846 billion —…
Read MoreThe Friday File: To encourage academic excellence, prizes are often awarded for outstanding achievement. Turns out that at least for the Field’s Medal (awarded every four years to the world’s top mathematician under 40), winning isn’t helpful. While winners and…
Read MoreWhile new home sales fell in March, they didn’t exactly plunge. The actual number of new homes sold last month was 36,000 down from a whopping 37,000 in February. While bad weather and lack of lots and credit are part…
Read MoreCopper is frequently referred to as Dr. Copper because of its perceived ability to predict future economic activity due its many industrial uses ranging from power generation to new home wiring. Sudden increases in demand can result in higher copper…
Read MoreThe current recovery is now 59 months old, the average length of all post WWII expansions. The last three recoveries have been much longer; 92 months, 120 months and 73 months respectively. This recovery will also be a very long…
Read MoreWith output at US factories, mines and utilities at an all-time high and capacity utilization at 79.2%, tantalizing close to the 80% level at which firms invest in new plant, increased capital spending will singlehandedly boost GDP by 0.25%, or…
Read MoreThe Friday file: While Americans own 96 million cats and 83 million dogs, more families have dogs than cats. It’s is because 70% of dog owners have just one dog, while just 45% of cat owners have a single cat.…
Read MoreAfter expanding at an annualized pace of 4.1% in Q3 and 2.4% in Q4, expect Q1 GDP to come in below 1.5% and that’s an improvement based on stronger March data. Q1 will be weak because of dismal weather, very…
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