The Italian bond market sold off in end of year trading as Italian investors began to think ahead to 2018 elections. Silvio Berlusconi is in the news again and extoling the virtues and standing of his party as the main rival to the [...]
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 29 2017Italian Confidences Hold Strong at Yearend and 2018 Beckons
- Global| Dec 28 2017
Japan's IP Puts in Another Good Month But Does Not Turn the Trend
Despite another solid month of IP expansion, IP trends in Japan remain under pressure. Sequential growth rates show no clear pattern. Output generally expands fast in Japan over six months that it has over 12-months. But output also [...]
- Global| Dec 27 2017
Spain's Retail Sales Gain But Are a Long Way from Past Levels
It is always good to maintain some perspective. Spain's retail sales are expanding and sequentially accelerating for nominal sales as well as for real sales. But the sense of acceleration is modest, especially for real sales. Two [...]
- Global| Dec 22 2017
German Confidence to Start New Year on a High Note
GfK estimates German confidence for the month ahead. For January 2018, GfK sees a rise in confidence to just short of an all-time high. This only entails a 0.1 tick higher in January. Still, the message is that German confidence, high [...]
- Global| Dec 21 2017
French Manufacturing Index Takes a Small Countertrend Step Back
France's INSEE index shows that the industry climate has backed off in December to a reading of 112.1 from 112.8 in November. Despite the drop, it is still a strong reading. In fact, it is stronger than every reading previous to [...]
- Global| Dec 20 2017
EMU Current Account Surplus Shifts Lower
The EMU current account and trade surpluses contracted in October with the current account falling to 30.8 billion euros from 39.15 billion euros and the trade surplus falling to 19.0 billion euros from 24.5 billion euros. The balance [...]
- Global| Dec 19 2017
Surprising Drop in German IFO Survey- As the World Churns
According to an old expression, 'trees do not grow to the sky.' In that spirit, it can't be 'surprising' that despite strong growth and solid improving conditions in the German economy, the IFO index stepped back this month. Only [...]
- Global| Dec 18 2017
EMU Inflation Is Still Too Low
Central banks have fallen into particular groups according to the environment in which they make policy. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are in one group. That group faces ongoing and perhaps accelerating economic [...]
- Global| Dec 15 2017
Japan's Tankan Improves to Tie Second Best Reading Since 2003
The bellwether in Japan's Tankan report is the performance of large manufacturing firms. Japan's large manufacturers pushed the outer edge of the envelope to score the second highest reading since the quarterly survey began in 2003 [...]
- Global| Dec 14 2017
Highest EMU and German PMI Readings Since 2011
Both sectors are rising but manufacturing is clearly on a tear The Markit PMIs are strong again as all headline and sector readings in the table are in the top 10% of the group of readings released since January 2012. Headline, goods, [...]
- Global| Dec 13 2017
EMU IP Gains in October after Drop
The September decline in EMU industrial production was a stumble not a lasting problem. In October, IP is back in the plus column and since the September drop came on the heels of a strong 1.5% August rise, EMU IP continues to trend [...]
- Global| Dec 12 2017
ZEW Experts See Gradual Improvements and Rising Inflation Risks
The chart is a reasonably good overview of what ZEW economic experts think. For a time, U.S. economic expectations outstripped everyone else - but no more. Over the last few months, in fact, there has been a very slow upgrading in the [...]
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