The EMU PMI gauge from Markit fell to 53.4 in May from 53.9 in April, confounding expectations that Europe's recovery would take root and strengthen. Despite the weak euro exchange rate and ongoing and soon-to be-stepped up QE by 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| May 21 2015EMU Private Sector Weakens Risks Linger
- Global| May 20 2015
Japan's GDP Posts Upside Surprise; Ignore the Year-Over-Year Weakness
Japan's GDP rose at a 2.4% annual rate in Q1, better than expected. Still, the GDP components are uneven. This is Japan's strongest quarterly GDP rise in one year. One year ago GDP rose by 4.9% as it was boosted by spending ahead of [...]
- Global| May 19 2015
ZEW Makes Sharp Backtrack As German Job Growth Slows
The German ZEW index for May shows a step back in the current index and a sharp drop in expectations. The expectations reading fell by 11.4 points in May, marking it as a drop that has been larger only 13.5% of the time. The current [...]
- Global| May 18 2015
Japan's IP Deflates on Revision
Japan's industrial production had a very good start to the quarter; since then it has been all downhill. After rising by 4.1% in January, IP fell by 3.1% in February and fell by 0.8% in March. Still, because of the jackrabbit start of [...]
- Global| May 15 2015
The Thrill Is Gone: Japan's Consumer Confidence Continues to Sag
Consumer confidence in Japan, a diffusion index, fell to 41.5 in April from 41.7 in March. The fall itself is not very telling, but it confirms that Japan is really stuck in the doldrums. The confidence index sits in the 48.8 [...]
- Global| May 14 2015
Japan's Retail Sales Trends Continue to Slip
There is little good news for Japan's consumer sector. The chart shows the damage and volatility transmitted to retail spending as spending boomed ahead of the announced sales tax hike then plunged in its wake. And now even [...]
- Global| May 13 2015
European Growth Steps Up...Small Step
EMU GDP accelerated in Q1 2015 with growth rising to an annual rate of 1.6%, up from 1.3% in Q4 2014. It's not much of a pickup, but it is acceleration. Among the early reporters of GDP in Q1 2015, only two, Finland and Greece, have [...]
- Global| May 12 2015
OECD LEIs Find Encroaching Weakness in March
The OECD leading indicators for March show slippage in the OECD, the U.S., the U.K., and China. The EMU gauge is unchanged in March while Japan's gauge has moved higher. The U.S. has been slipping since June 2014. Its reading of 99.6 [...]
- Global| May 11 2015
Dutch IP Surprisingly Sags as EMU Outlook Hangs on Greece
Dutch manufacturing and overall IP both fell in March. Overall IP fell for the first time in two months while manufacturing had fallen in two of the last three months. Trends for IP are not good. Utilities output and transportation [...]
- Global| May 08 2015
German IP Surprisingly Sours
German industrial output fell by 0.5% in March, a drop that was not expected. Furthermore, German exports rose by 1.2% on the month, faster than expected, driving a wedge of inconsistency between the IP and export results for the [...]
- Global| May 07 2015
Grim News from Germany Despite Order Rebound
German real orders rose by 0.9% in March after two months of falling. Orders, however, are still falling at a 6.1% annual rate in the just completed first quarter. But this drop is not the reason for my pessimism over this report. [...]
- Global| May 06 2015
EMU Services Slip a Bit in April
The services sector has been carrying the European recovery, but that sector backed off with its PMI index edging lower to 54.1 in April from 54.2 in March. Still, the services PMI has a queue standing in the 76.2 percentile, much [...]
- of355Go to 191 page