There is still a place in the world of economists where the Tooth Fairy visits. It is where those who believe unemployment is about to improve, consumers will have access to growing amounts of credit that…
Sovereign debt problems in Dubai, Ireland, and Iceland have forced the credit rating agencies to keep a sharp eye on national debt. There have been some warnings that high deficits in the UK might…
Japan will increase it stimulus package by $81 billion, a move that will almost certainly increase the nation’s public debt and strain the global fixed income markets, making it more likely that interest rates…
The economic recovery can only carry so much weight before it gets bogged down. It already faces unemployment that is 10% and may rise into next year. In 2011, personal and business taxes are scheduled…
Friday’s surprisingly strong job report sent the dollar soaring (NYSE: FXE, FXB, FXA, FXY). Skittish currency traders got the impression that the improvement in the job market might prompt the Fed to raise interest…
The nation’s headline unemployment number declined in November, from 10.2% to 10%. Nonfarm payroll jobs declined by 11,000, with the average decline over the past three months being 135,000. Job loses were primarily in…
The Labor Department is out with the newest weekly jobless claims data. The figure came in at 457,000 versus the estimates from Bloomberg of 485,000. The preliminary unrevised figure a week ago was 466,000,…
It would have been preposterous to say the DJIA could close the year at 12,000 back in March when it dropped below 6,600. The market is up 60% since then and trades at nearly…
The minutes of The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee for November 3 and November 4 are a study in contradiction and perhaps even confusion. Members of the committee almost all…
The November 3 to 4 Minutes of the FOMC meeting are now out, and as you have been told over and over (and over and over)…. It has the flexibility to keep rates low…
This morning we just received the first revision to third quarter Gross Domestic Product. The original unrevised figure was reported +3.5% for Q3, and the revision came in at +2.8%. Bloomberg had a consensus…
The OECD expects the economic recovery in the US to be significantly better than in Europe. In its new Economic Outlook survey the agency says US gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 2.5%…
The President is supposed to talk about how much the economy is improving, not how bad it could be. Mr. Obama broke with the approach by saying that “It is important though to recognise if…
The National Employment Law Project says that the public’s perception of what will happen to insurance benefits for the unemployed early next year is flawed. Most press reports on Congressional action on the matter…
It could be the economy or the fact that spending time in McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Target (NYSE:TGT), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is more pleasant than it used to be. All of these retailers certainly…