The Bowtie Economist's Daily Dose of 70-Word Wisdom

After hitting a post-recession low of 8 in mid-2011, the number of countries experiencing 2% inflation or less is now 42. Similarly, while no nations experienced inflation rates below zero back in mid-2011, now 20 nations are. Moreover, the number…

The Friday File: Based on answers given by 150,000 adults in 148 countries on a five-question multiple choice financial literacy test that included questions on inflation, interest rates, and investing and that always had a correct answer, the US came…

Q3 GDP growth in Europe slowed to 0.3%, from 0.4% in Q2 and 0.5% in Q1! Europe’s gains from cheaper oil and rising exports from the weakening euro appear over. With inflation in the Eurozone at 0.1% Y-o-Y, the ECB…

In Q3/15, retail e-commerce sales were $87.5 billion, up 4.2% from Q2/15. Total retail sales in Q3/15 totaled $1.185 trillion, up 1.2% from Q2/15. Retail e-commerce now represents 7.4% of all retail sales, up from 6.5% a year ago. Moreover,…

While Japan is again in recession with GDP falling by an annualized 0.8% in Q3 and 0.7% in Q2, looks are deceiving. The population peaked at 128 million in 2008 and will shrink by about 800,000/year through 2060, an average…

Given that the only criteria for a currency obtaining Special Drawing Right (reserve) status by the IMF are that the nation be a big exporter and the currency widely used, the decision to add the Chinese yuan to the dollar,…

The Friday File: Since 1972, no candidate finishing lower than second in the New Hampshire presidential primary has won his party’s presidential nomination. By contrast, because the Iowa caucus is heavily dominated by activists who are not representative of primary…

While the labor force participation rate is 62.4% down from 65.7% when the recession ended, those workers won’t return. They’ve retired, are students, are disabled or care for a family member. Slack is the sum of discouraged, marginally attached and…

In 1918 during WWI, US GDP was $75.8 billion and the budget deficit was 12% of GDP. In 1919, GDP was $78.3 billion; the deficit, 17% of GDP. By 1942, GDP was $148 billion and the wartime deficit was 14%…

China’s economy continues to slowly weaken. Y-o-Y inflation is just 1.3% and declining, producer prices fell 5.9% and have been falling for 44 consecutive months. Imports fell 18.8% primarily due to slowing demand from for raw materials from heavy industry,…