The European Union continues to make smart gains in March with its overall index of sentiment up by 1.2 percentage points. For the broader EU, the overall sentiment index has risen to 105.3 in March from 105 in February. EU industrial [...]
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| Mar 28 2014Europe Continues to Make Progress
- Global| Mar 27 2014
Money Growth Prevaricates; EMU Credit Slips
New data available through February 2014 point to the continuing sluggishness in money growth and outright weakness in credit growth in the European Monetary Union. Mario Draghi, European Central Bank President, must wonder sometimes [...]
- Global| Mar 26 2014
The Con Game: Confidence Flattens at High Level in Germany; What about Elsewhere?
German economic climate for April in the GfK format has stalled out or paused at a relatively high value. Climate in Germany gets better than this less than 5% of the time. That makes this level an impressive standing. Economic [...]
- Global| Mar 25 2014
Ifo Turns Mixed in March as Headline Drops
The Ifo continues to hold the high ground with its overall index standing in the top 15% of its historic range. The current situation stands in the top 21st percentile and the expectations index stands in the top 14th percentile, [...]
- Global| Mar 24 2014
Europe Works Its Way Back Toward Normalcy, But Not Without Backsliding
The trend in the Markit composite PMI for the European Monetary Union advanced further in March even as the monthly readings backtracked to 53.2 from 53.3 in February. The 12-month, six-month and three-month moving averages show a [...]
- Global| Mar 21 2014
Euro Area Current Account Continues Run Up
The euro area current account surplus moved even higher in January as goods exports pulled back slightly and goods imports fell relatively sharply. Over three months export and import growth rates are pretty similar, a 2.2% pace for [...]
- Global| Mar 20 2014
Inflation: the Bane of Central Banks...But Not in the Way You Think
It is as though central banks have gone through the looking glass. In the days of yore, we had central banks such as the Federal Reserve in the United States headed by Paul Volker and the Bundesbank in Germany headed by just about [...]
- Global| Mar 19 2014
Japan's Sector Indices Move Higher Ahead of Tax Hike; Will the Consumption Tax Be a Brick Wall to Abe-Nomics or a [...]
Japan's sector indices continue to turn higher in January. After a setback in December, the January all-industry index for Japan is moving back up. The level in January 2014 is above the level of November 2013, making the January [...]
- Global| Mar 18 2014
ZEW Expectations Take a Geopolitical Hit as EU Car Sales Zoom
In the wake of off-putting geopolitical news in Crimea, the ZEW German expectations index for March fell sharply to 46.6 from 55.7. Its current component continued to advance but did so very slowly. The current index moved up to 51.3 [...]
- Global| Mar 14 2014
German and European Inflation and the Dilemma-Zone
The chart shows the path of inflation for the three largest countries in the European Monetary Union (Spain is the fourth largest). It's clear from this chart that inflation for Germany, France and Italy tends to follow the same [...]
- Global| Mar 13 2014
Unemployment in Europe Is Stubborn...and Telling
There is no comparison between the drop in the US unemployment rate and the slow downward crawl of the unemployment rate in Europe. Of course, the US recovery has been ongoing while the European recovery is nascent. But that is part [...]
- Global| Mar 12 2014
EMU IP Drop Belies Widespread Strength
Industrial production in the European Monetary Union made a surprising decline in January. Yet, it only ticked down by 0.1% but that does mark two consecutive declines. Looking at manufacturing, we see a rebound of 0.3% in January [...]
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