Econ70
Borrowing costs for Portugal, Ireland and Greece have hit highs amid concern that Europe will not take action to dispel fears of sovereign defaults. Long term rates for Spain came close to setting a record and Italy’s cost rose above…
The key reason investors believe the economy is improving is because the surveys; the ISMs, consumer confidence and regional Fed polls of manufacturing sentiment have been strong. Auto and chain store sales were also decent. But other data reports like…
192K jobs in Feb! But wait. Due to storms in Jan let’s avg out job growth in Jan and Feb. That gets us about 125K per month; not much better than in Q4 ’10. So we have positive job growth…
Is deflation all that bad? It’s considered bad in part because consumers postpone purchases today to get a better deal tomorrow, weakening demand. Is this true for food, gas, haircuts and electricity? NOT! And how about consumer electronics? The laptop/ipod/hard…
We saw auto sales shoot up 6.7% to 13.4 million units (at an annual rate), the best level since August ‘09, and we also saw the ISM inch higher to 61.4 from 60.8 with the “internals” of the report just…
Manufacturing data in the U.S. continues to improve. The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped from 68.8 in Jan to 71.2 in Feb — best since July ‘88. Production, orders, inventories, backlogs all rose — the exception; employment. The New…
The US economy is improving; GDP is finally back where it was before the collapse of Lehman Bros! But by many measures the economy has a long way to go. For example, there are 130 million employed persons in the…
Our economy can’t catch a break. Last spring the European debt crisis derailed any chance of a recovery; now it’s oil. Prices have surged due to fear of violence disrupting oil supplies and the fear that political instability in the…
Yesterday Ireland held elections; Fianna Fail (FF) lost to Fine Gael & Labour (FGL). When the Irish economy tanked in ‘08 FF had the government guarantee all bad bank debt; a dreadful decision resulting in a $93 billion bailout and…
Q4 GDP revised downward to 2.8% from 3.2% in line with the Fed Reserve Bank of Chicago’s monthly National Activity Index. It’s kind of like a montly GDP report! It’s been saying that the economy is growing, but too slowly.…