Industrial production and capacity utilization did come in right where economists were expecting, but the level at which these numbers are seeing just feels ghastly. Industrial production for May was -1.1% and Capacity utilization…
Wholesale inflation measured by producer prices for the month of May is out, and the fears of inflation are not yet working into the system. The nominal PPI came in +0.2% for May and…
New York City is choked with more than eight million people, many of whom have to drive to work on highways meant to accommodate traffic levels of the 1930s. The bridges and tunnels into…
Toyota (TM) and Nissan, two of the most successful car companies in the world, are hiring temporary workers in Europe to staff some of their auto plants. It is safe to assume that these…
The theory about how the government can hold down interest rates is simple and naive. The Treasury will raise hundreds of billions of dollars in global markets where access to credit is already tight.…
The New York Fed’s Empire manufacturing data came in a bit weaker than expected. Business conditions for the month of June fell to -9.41 versus a reading of -4.55 in May. The Bloomberg consensus…
After several weeks of conviction on the part of most economists that the current recession is a “single” dip which will end later this year, the advocates of a “double dip” recession are out…
The financial ministers of the G8 nations spent the better part of three days and weeks of preparation to reach a point where most of the members believe that it is time to curtail…
The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment numbers almost containly contain too much data. A careful reading of the figures show that they often conflict with one another leaving nothing but a puzzle. The most…
The seers at the World Bank have broken with most other forecasters and believe that global GDP will contract violently this year and may not recover next year. According to Reuters, World Bank President…
Retail sales were up .5% in May as expected, but they were up for many of the wrong reasons creating a mirage effect about the economy’s future. The Commerce Department numbers showed that higher…
The State of California, home to perpetual government turmoil, has warned the world again that it will self-destruct leaving its citizens without a single government service. Both taxpayers and the unemployed no longer believe…
It seems that the “Treasury Budget” is in need of a name change just like the “Trade Balance” has seen. We can all finally start to formally call both of these “Deficits.” The “Budget…
President Obama says that he plans to accelerate portions of the stimulus bill in an attempt to add jobs to the economy more quickly. The new goal is to create 600,000 positions over the…
Bill Gross, the chief investment officer of bond management firm Pimco, makes the case in a letter to investors that the US national debt could easily reach 100% of GDP, perhaps as quickly as…