National Association for Business Economics members say that the housing disaster and credit problems "might" get better this year. The economic downturn and job losses could go on much longer. According to the AP…
Asian markets are way up since March. Investors hope that the region has dodged the bullet of a slowdown in the West. A sharp recession in America could cause a drop in demand for…
Late news out of the economy track system is that the buildings are collapsing all around. After Goldman Sachs (GS) panicked and said that oil would rise to $141, crude immediately spiked to $128…
The CPI showed that prices for food rose .9% in April, the most in 18 years. Overall, total inflation was more muted and the market was relieved. In the UK, the picture was not…
April CPI was released from the Labor Department with a nominal rate of +0.2% and a core rate of +0.1%. According to Bloomberg estimates, those expectations were +0.3% on nominal CPI and and +0.2%…
The cost of food in the US was up .9% last month, the highest increase in 18 years. The news reinforces the concern that the rising price of agricultural commodities is taking a toll…
For someone who buys 600 gallons of gas at a price per gallon which is $1 higher than it was last year, a $600 federal tax rebate is not much comfort. Merrill Lynch sees…
There is a new feeling suffusing the financial markets that the worst of the credit crisis is over. The Fed has done most of its work. US citizens are about to get their tax…
George Soros has taken the unpopular side of many economic bets over the years. He has not only lived to tell the tales. He has made himself and his investors untold billions of dollars…
Toyota (TM) said its earnings fell 28% in the fourth quarter. It blamed the Yen and a slow car market in the US. Although no one was surprised, the figures were worse than most…
This morning was strange on the economic number cycle as far as firstquarter worker productivity is concerned. The Labor Departmentreleased a figure of non-farm business worker productivity measured asper-hour output being up by +2.2%. …
One of the largest credit card providers to small business, Advanta Corp, took some big write-downs last quarter. According to CFO Magazine "Recent studies and reports from lenders show that small businesses are either…
Based on the figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US unemployment was 5% in April. Those figures showed that 146.3 million Americans were employed in the civilian work-force and 7.6 million Americans were…
The Labor Department just released the April 2008 unemployment numbers. While these are negative, they aren’t as bad as estimates. The unemployment rate came in at 5.0% versus estimates we had marked as as…
The reading for Q1-2008 GDP is out, and it’s no real surprise that GDP managed to show a small gain of +0.6% on the advance and preliminary number. Bloomberg had noted a +0.5% Q1…