ThinkstockNo one can question that the overall unemployment rate has fallen from a monthly crest of more than 10% at the peak of the recession toward 7% recently. In several states, the figure has…
ThinkstockThe just released Reuters University of Michigan report on consumer sentiment is the preliminary report for August. While we argue that this reading focuses on far too few households to be a truly representative…
ThinkstockU.S. railroads moved nearly 260,000 intermodal units (containers) in the week ended August 10. That is a 6.1% increase over the same week a year ago, and it is a hopeful sign for a…
ThinkstockTropical Storm Erin looks like it may bring a late-August threat to the Caribbean and possibly the East Coast or to the Gulf of Mexico. We all know that some tropical storms progress into hurricanes, while others…
ThinkstockEditor’s note: According to a number of news sources, nearly 200 more people died in rioting in Egypt on Friday and more protests are expected today The Egyptian economy grew by 7% annually in…
Something may not be adding up properly with the U.S. Labor Department numbers. Perhaps it is just a lagging effect of CPI versus PPI, as we frequently have discussed, or the boys and girls counting the…
courtesy of the White HouseThe economy may be getting better, albeit at a slow pace. Americans do not seem to believe the improvement is fast enough or good enough, at least insofar as any…
ThinkstockDespite higher energy costs, inflation still seems to be in check. The U.S. Labor Department released on Wednesday morning the Producer Price Index (PPI) for the month of July. The headline PPI came in…
ThinkstockAfter years of recession, and fears that the recession would continue years longer, Europe has moved back into the GDP growth column. The EU research arm said about the growth of gross domestic product…
ThinkstockGermany’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% in the second quarter. Since the European Union’s largest economy relies heavily on trade within the region, the numbers are another sign of a modest recovery there.…
ThinkstockThe National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) this morning reported a rise of 0.6 points in its small business optimism index, from 93.5 in June to 94.1 in July. In May the index reached…
ThinkstockJapan’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose only 2.6% on an annualized basis in the second quarter, a deep disappointment. There has been an effort to marginalize Japan despite the experimentation of its central bank…
ThinkstockIn July, America’s manufacturing sector grew for the second month in a row. This improvement is in line with longer-term trends, according to the Institute for Supply Management. While some experts are predicting a…
ThinkstockSaginaw County, which is more than an hour’s drive north of Detroit, and Genesee County, about the same distance away, cancelled bond offerings, supposedly because the collapse of Detroit and the fallout that crushed…
ThinkstockGerman’s economy continues to sputter, although data from June showed a modest improvement over earlier months. Some experts claim this advance is a sign of recovery of the EU economy. It will take more…