ThinkstockFinance Minister Lou Jiwei seemed coy in his recent comments about a Chinese GDP stimulus package. There probably will not be a big one this year, but the central government plans to help employment and…
ThinkstockIt is appalling to believe that many Americans cannot afford healthy food. But the number of people who can’t is terribly high, which says that whatever effort has been made by the government to pull…
ThinkstockTuesday morning’s economic releases included a gain in industrial production for the month of June. Production rose by 0.3%, rather than the 0.2% consensus expected by Bloomberg. Capacity utilization also managed to come in…
ThinkstockUnemployment in the world’s developed countries is not forecast to improve much — if at all — through the end of 2014. At the end of April, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…
ThinkstockThe U.S. Labor Department has released its inflation report for the month of June. Its Consumer Price Index (CPI), measuring consumer inflation, showed that prices were up by 0.5% on the headline CPI, but…
ThinkstockThe European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was established to provide a financial backstop to potential sovereign debt default among eurozone nations. Backed by guarantees, primarily from Germany and France, the debt was rated ‘AAA’…
ThinkstockBusiness inventories data for the month of May have been released this morning. May was brought along with a 0.1% gain, matching the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 0.1% and a tad higher than the…
ThinkstockChina’s economy grew at 7.5% in the second quarter, compared to the same period last year. The government of the People’s Republic may not only use this rate as part of reform movements for…
ThinkstockFrance was a nation we had previously fingered to lose its prized “AAA” rating. After all, if the United States was losing its universal “AAA” rating then France and a handful of other key…
ThinkstockIn its latest assault on sovereign debt ratings, Fitch Ratings has downgraded France’s default rating from ‘AAA’ to ‘AA+’ with a Stable outlook. Fitch is jointly owned (50% each) by Hearst Corporation and FIMALAC…
ThinkstockThe continuing drought over much of the western half of the United States spread modestly in the past week, now covering about 45% of lower 48 states. The drought covered 44% of the continental…
The Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment has been released and investors and the public will care about this number because it is one of the first nearly live reports for the month of July.…
Ed Brown, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Labor Department is responsible for measuring inflation, and it has just released its first reading with the June Producer Price Index (PPI). This is the measure of wholesale inflation,…
ThinkstockThe European Union’s (EU) statistical agency, Eurostat, reported this morning that industrial production in May for the 17 countries of the eurozone fell by 0.3% month-over-month and by 1.3% year-over-year. In the larger 27-member…
ThinkstockBoth China’s prime minister and its finance minister hinted that China’s growth of gross domestic product (GDP) may slow considerably this year, and perhaps the next. That has caused many analysts to believe that…