– by New Deal democrat Consumer spending is about 70% of the economy, and retail sales is our first wide measure of that spending. And since consumption leads employment, it is an important real world measure. In May, after two months of being dominated by gas prices, it was even more decisively driven by a likely […]
In a Nut Shell? The title tells it all as to what is occurring when looking at the Household Employment release. Civilian Labor force for May increased by 83,000 over April while Not in Labor Force went up by 17,000. Unemployed dropped by 66,000. Unemployment Rate remained at 4.3%. Participation Rate remained the same at […]
– by New Deal democrat Per my comments yesterday, so much data was released (with none coming today) that I did not report on several of the items. I’ll get to new home sales later, but first let’s talk about new orders and revised GDP. The central theme of yesterday’s personal income and spending report […]
This morning there is a slew of economic data, including personal indome and spending, jobless claims, durable and capital goods orders, revisions to GDP, and new home sales. Since tomorrow there is very little data, I am going to report on the first two tdoay, and save the rest for tomorrow. – by New Deal democrat […]
– by New Deal democrat I’ll get to housing permits and starts later this morning. But first, let me take my regular look at initial and continuing jobless claims. As a reminder, I look at jobless claims because historically they have been a very good short leading indicator for the economy. And they continue to […]
– by New Deal democrat In the past month or two, a number of times I have been asked by friends and neighbors why, if the economy feels so bad, does the stock market keep making new record highs? And is this a Boom or a Bubble? Here is what I have been telling them. There […]
– by New Deal democrat Consumer spending is about 70% of the economy, and retail sales is our first wide measure of that spending. For the second month in a row, this morning’s update for April was unsurprisingly dominated by what happened at gas stations. Nominally, total retail sales rose 0.5% in April, But after […]
– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Surprisingly, most of the data is almost relentlessly positive. In particular, those things most tied up with AI — corporate profits, stock prices, and downstream consumer spending — are particularly strong. Also, American energy companies are making windfall profits from the closure of […]