The notion that swine flu will hurt the economic recovery in the fourth quarter has gone from a theory to a reality. The number of states that reported widespread infection went to 26 last…
The Fed indicated that growth in the economy was picking up, a little, and that it would extend its debt buying plan, probably until the first quarter of next year. It view of the…
Congress has passed a law extending unemployment insurance in the 27 states where the jobless rate is above 8.5%. The bill passed by a margin of 331-83, so it had remarkably broad support. Congress…
The Conference Board has just released its data on Leading Economic Indicators for August, and the gain here is actually a drop when compared to recent months. LEI in the U.S. rose by +0.6%…
There was concern about significant worldwide infection and death shortly after the swine flu was discovered in Mexico earlier this year. That concern tailed off as it because clear, perhaps prematurely so, the strain…
No one questions that the most economically devastated geographic region in the US during this recession is Detroit. GM, Ford (F), and Chrysler have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs as have their suppliers.…
The Federal Reserve has released some key data in its quarterly “flow of funds” report that shows Americans actually saw a gain in wealth in the Second Quarter of 2009. The Fed calculates this…
The recent report on global unemployment from the OECD predicted that developed country joblessness will reach post WW-II highs soon and will not improve much over the next two years. Now, Noble Prize winner…
Someone forgot to tell employers that the recession is over. The OECD reports that unemployment among developed nations has reached a post-WWII high. In its latest employment outlook the agency said that the unemployment…
Whether people blame President Obama for growing deficits or not, his job approval rating is holding its own. A new Bloomberg poll of 1,004 adults conducted between September 10 and September 14 shows Obama…
Professor Bernanke made it official by saying the recession is almost certainly over. He has to be conservative when he speaks because he does not want his comments as Chairman of the Federal Reserve…
The inflation bugs finally got some good gossip to discuss around their campfire. The nominal PPI data was listed as +1.7%, but the core reading on an ex-food and energy basis was ‘only’ +0.2%. …
The number of millionaire households in the world dropped from 11 million in 2007 to 9 million last year, a fall of almost 18%, according to The Boston Consulting Group. The figure was worse…
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. At least that…
Janet L. Yellen is the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a voting member of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. She is highly pessimistic about an economic recovery. Yellen…