ThinkstockChina’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) rose 7.8%. Now, speculation and arguments over whether the People’s Republic can maintain the pace in the fourth quarter and into 2014…
ThinkstockFirst you saw dismal numbers from the Empire Manufacturing report from the New York Federal Reserve. Now you are getting to a slightly different take from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve in the so-called Philly…
For the S&P 500 to reach 2,000, it will need to rise 16% above what is already nearly record territory. The index should make it. Most analysts believe that the Washington settlement will be short-lived as the…
ThinkstockA deal between Democrats and Republicans has supposedly been reached in Washington, D.C., to end the government shutdown and to end the debt ceiling expiration. While many people expect that this will prevent Treasury…
ThinkstockThe U.S. economy continued to increase at a “modest to moderate pace” according to Wednesday’s release of the Federal Reserve’s October Beige Book. Employment growth, one of the key drivers of the Fed’s monetary…
ThinkstockA bipartisan deal was reached to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday. While this provides immediate relief, the agreement is only a short reprieve. Funding to the government now…
ThinkstockThe seemingly never-ending story of negotiations to end the Washington stalemate over the looming debt ceiling took a few more unexpected turns this after. First, the U.S. House cancelled a hastily-scheduled vote on a…
Fitch Ratings has just told the lawmakers and policymakers in Washington D.C. to get their act together. The ratings agency had previously been a supporter of the AAA credit ratings of the United States,…
ThinkstockSome people may be happy to see the federal government taking some time off, but the fallout is threatening to cripple many businesses and consumers alike. Now we have yet another private sector reading…
ThinkstockThe stock market and bond market are both blind to major government economic reports right now due to the federal government shutdown. That may be changing any day, but the reality is that the…
ThinkstockIf the U.S. Congress and the president cannot agree on terms under which the federal debt ceiling can be raised, the federal government likely would run out of cash by the end of the month.…
ThinkstockTaxes are necessary for a functioning government, but according to one group, many states are crippling regional business growth with tax structures that are too expensive or complex. The Tax Foundation’s 2014 State Business…
ThinkstockThe Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index for October dropped to 75.2 from a final reading of 77.5 in August. The October index is the lowest reading since January. Economists were expecting…
ThinkstockYi Gang, the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, recently said that the world’s second largest economy has recovered from a nasty period in the first half of 2013. The Chinese miracle…
Ed Brown, via Wikimedia CommonsNew claims for unemployment benefits jumped 66,000 in the week ending last Saturday, according to the weekly report from the U.S. Department of Labor. The total rose to 374,000 from…