BEA just published the state real GDP data for 2011.  Since I have not done it in a while I thought it would be interesting to create the state real GDP per capita data for 2011.  There has not been much difference since the last time I did this exercise several years ago.  The last […]

Usually I describe the employment report as disappointing. But this one was just miserable. Private sector employment only rose 69,000 and the unemployment rate ticked back up from 8.1%to 8.2%. On a positive note, the household survey showed a gain of 422,000 and generally this series tends to lead the payroll data.   But the […]

This was another disappointing  employment report  It is looking more and more like the stronger numbers last winter stemmed more from the mild weather rather than a strengthening of underlying trends. The headline or payroll report showed a gain of 115,000 jobs– 130,000 in private jobs and a 15,000 drop in government employment.    The […]

A  few weeks ago I showed energy consumption as a share of  nominal personal consumption expenditures (PCE ) and though it would be interesting to follow up with food and energy as a share of PCE. From 1959 to 1999 food and energy fell from about 33% of PCE to 17.5%.  This almost 50% drop […]

The monthly trade data was reported this morning and you will see press reports about the nominal trade deficit. But I like to look at the real trade data as it gives a better feel for the economic impact of trade. The real trade deficit is improving and the balance in February was $44,148 million […]

I see that his blog Mankiw shows a chart of the employment population ratio to make a comment about the “so called recovery”. But he selected the start date of the chart so that you could not see that during the eight years of the Bush administration the employment-population fell from 63.0 to 60.3, a […]

The employment report was a major disappointment. Payroll employment rose some 120,000, significantly less than the over 200,000 anticipated. Moreover, the household survey displayed a-31,000 drop in employment. The unemployment rate did tick down from 8.3%to 8.2%. But that was largely because the labor force fell -164,000 Moreover, the average work week fell from 34.6 […]

Today’s release of personal income and expenditure data was about as expected and the January-February data suggest that first quarter real personal expenditures component of the real GDP account will show about 2% real growth. But the energy expenditures within the data has been little noticed. Normally rising energy prices dampen the economy. But this […]

I had problems with the blogger account and was not able to sign on until 2:30 this afternoon.. It is a little late for analysis of the employment report, so I’ll just post a couple of charts I had prepared to add this morning. If you go back to old days before the great moderation, […]

Today’s personal income data release was interesting. Overwhelming, everyone is reaching the conclusion that the economy is strengthening and that stronger consumer spending is a major factor behind this conclusion. But today’s report shows that we now have three consecutive months of zero growth in real personal consumption expenditures( PCE ) — the single largest […]