U.K. nominal retail sales are lower by 0.5% in November, marking their fourth straight decline month-to-month. With Brexit and a national election facing British citizens, they have been a bit slow on the uptake of Christmas spirit. [...]
Introducing
Robert Brusca
in:Our Authors
Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
Publications by Robert Brusca
Global| Dec 19 2019U.K. Retail Sales Post Surprise Drop
- Global| Dec 18 2019
German IFO Assessment and Expectation Improve
The IFO climate gauge improved to -0.5 in December from -1.5 in November. This improvement pushed the percentile standing to its 50.4 percentile in December from the 47.1 percentile previously, in November. Still, the ranking over the [...]
- Global| Dec 17 2019
Car Registrations in Europe
Car registrations in Europe show somewhat mixed trends in November. Year-over-year sales are rising for three months in a row in this highly volatile and hard to seasonally adjust series. But the recent months' trends are much more [...]
- Global| Dec 17 2019
Has Europe's Trade Trend Turned?
Europe's trade trend this month but is it sustainable? Two aspects of the EMU trade trend are notable. One is that exports are accelerating. And export acceleration applies to manufactured exports and pretty-much to nonmanufacturing [...]
- Global| Dec 16 2019
European PMIs Remain Lethargic
PMIs continue to strike a weak note. In December, manufacturing flash PMIs are overwhelmingly weak and registering contraction. Service sector gauges are weak across the board and show declines episodically in December. The queue [...]
- Global| Dec 13 2019
Friday 13 of December 2019: An unlucky day for Japan's Tankan
Japan's Tankan report has been a closely watched and key indicator of Japan's economy for some time. The manufacturing barometer, which is considered the bellwether of this index, fell to zero in Q4 2019 from 5 in Q3. That drop marks [...]
- Global| Dec 12 2019
EMU Area IP Sinks Again As Inflation Undershoots
As disappointing as this news is, it comes on a day with a more cheerful note. Germany's IFO has declared that the downward spiral in German industry is over and that it now expects stabilization and growth. That is something to look [...]
- Global| Dec 11 2019
Japan's PPI Ticks Higher in November Amid Curious Global Circumstances
Japan's PPI (domestic corporate goods price index) is up by 0.1% in November after an out-sized jump of 1.2% in October. Japan, despite the three-month PPI pace of a 4.8% annualized gain, does not show the trappings of momentum to [...]
- Global| Dec 10 2019
ZEW Assessments and Expectations Improve But Gain Less Markedly
The ZEW global macroeconomic assessments have improved along a broad front in December following a surge of improvement in November. The improvements logged this month are more modest, but they continue the direction of change as [...]
- Global| Dec 09 2019
German Trade Data Tell a Tale of Two Germanys
Germany's October trade report is better than expected. The surplus is up on the month, above its 12-month average and above its year-ago value. Exports are rising for the second month in a row and for the fifth time in six months. [...]
- Global| Nov 22 2019
PMIs Remain Weak But Give Off Mixed (Up) Signals
Let's begin looking at conditions in Europe. The graph tells the over-arching story of a weakening manufacturing sector whose weakness has largely been resisted by the services sector. Sure, both services and manufacturing are in [...]
- Global| Nov 21 2019
French Business Climate Is Fractionally Improved
The French business climate indicator for industry ticked higher to 99.7 in November from 99.4 in October, a marginal improvement. Since 2001, the indicator ranks just above the lower one third of its queue of observations at its 34.7 [...]
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