A number of prominent American economists believe that the American economy has permanently lost its resilience and vitality. They believe that, for the first time in memory, America cannot rebuild itself after a severe…
The Institute for Supply Management released its manufacturing data for April and we also saw March Factory Orders. The April data from the ISM looks favorable compared with March and to the consensus estimates. …
The market continues to stage an improbable rally which should have been affected by concerns about the spread of the Swine flu virus and the fact that several large American banks may need tremendous…
The FOMC has said that it will leave the target Fed Funds Rates between 0.00% to 0.25%. The group also noted that the decision was unanimous and said that the contractions in the economy…
We just got our first look at the Q1-2009 GDP. The initial report shows -6.1%, much worse than expected but not as bad as the -6.3% in Q4-2008. Bloomberg had estimates at -5.0% for…
The Conference Board’s reading on Consumer Confidence just popped to 39.2 for the month of April. This is above a reading of 26.9 revised for March from a preliminary 26.0 reading. We had estimates…
The recently rich nations of the Middle East and Russia are learning that having a lot of money is not all that it is cracked up to be, especially when the money goes away.…
Somewhere in the basement of a government warehouse, federal employees with too little to do have come up with estimates of the what the effects of an all-out flu pandemic would be. Like most estimates, these…
There are many fears about the swine flu outbreak. It is not simply that it could cause the death of thousands or in the case of a pandemic, perhaps millions. Other fears are economic…
The media has been hyper-focused this weekend on the news that more than 1,000 people in Mexico have become infected with Swine flu, also known as Influenza A H1N1. Nearly 90 people have died…
We have just seen the highly volatile Durable Goods numbers released this morning. The numbers from the Commerce Department came in at -0.8%. This was a bit better than expectations as Bloomberg had forecasts…
Nouriel Roubini, whose pessimistic notes to investors have become redundant, has passed along his latest predictions of the economy and, to hear him tell it, we are all going to hell. At his website,…
In one of the surveys about national economic prospects that grabs big headlines but may say very little about real trends, the National Association for Business Economics is saying that companies think that the…
The President says he sees a faint light at the end of the tunnel. So does the Treasury Secretary and head of the Fed. They are joined by Lawrence Summers, who, not so long…
The foreclosure rates on homes in the US is still rising sharply, which is bad news for banks and almost anyone trying to sell a house. It could also totally undermine the Administration’s plan to…