IFO improves, barely -- The IFO survey is in the same boat as the rest of the recent economic indicators. The index is off its low, and rising but still showing contraction. The improvement in May continued but was very slight for [...]
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 26 2009
IFO Shows Sector Indices HaveBottomed...Maybe
Global| May 21 2009
Japan GDP In Record Drop As Trade Collapses
Japan is being lead lower by its trade dependence as much as any large developed country. Exports are lower at a 70% annual rate Q/Q and by 37% Yr/Yr. Imports meanwhile are dropping at a lesser but still outsized 47% annual rate in q1 [...]
Global| May 20 2009
Japan GDP in Record Drop As Trade Collapses
Japan is being led lower by its trade dependence as much as any large developed country. Exports are lower at a 70% annual rate Q/Q and by 37% Yr/Yr. Imports meanwhile are dropping at a lesser but still outsized 47% annual rate in Q1 [...]
Global| May 18 2009
Japan's Consumer Confidence Is Up For The Fourth Month In A Row
Japan’s consumer confidence index is up for the fourth month running. It is now a monthly reading - that accounts for the history of dots on the chart which represent unconnected quarterly observations ahead of the adoption of monthly [...]
Global| May 15 2009
EMU GDP Drops Sharply
The EMU region’s sharp drop in GDP has turned out to be worse than expected for the region as well as for most countries. Germany is showing the deepest GDP drop since 1970. The drop that The Netherlands is experiencing is the [...]
Global| May 14 2009
Real Euro Digs In Its Heels Despite Weak Growth
GDP: more reports coming - The bulk of the euro-countries’ GDP reports will begin to be released on Friday. For now we have the Q/Q number for Spain and a release for the UK (an EU member country) and a comparison available to the US. [...]
Global| May 13 2009
Euro Area IP Drops Again All Sectors Still Weak
Euro Area manufacturing output fell by 2.1% in March. The 21.2% drop Yr/Yr exceeds the 20.2% drop posted in February. The sequential growth rate rates seem to have stabilized at a very torrid pace of decline just under 30% at an [...]
Global| May 12 2009
The UK Halts Its String Of MFG Output Declines
In the UK overall MFG output is flat in March. Despite the fall, the output of durable consumer goods is up in March and its trend shows a diminishing pace of decline. Consumer nondurable output is up for three months in a row and [...]
Global| May 11 2009
OECD LEIs The Long View
Taken in a rather broad perspective the downturn according to the OECD’s LEIs which are cyclically adjusted is quite severe; the worst since 1970, at least. But the US and several counties in OECD Europe are showing signs of doing [...]
Global| May 08 2009
German Industrial Output Halts Its Strong Of Declines
German industrial production halted its string of six consecutive declines with a flat result in March. Over three months the negative growth rate for IP has flattened but at a still horrific -33% (saar). Ironically, the capital goods [...]
Global| May 07 2009
German Orders In Surprise Rebound
Foreign orders that had been falling a bit faster than those from domestic sources were up by a sharp 5.6% m/m in May compared to a rise of 1.1% for orders from domestic sources. German factory orders from outside the 16-nation euro [...]
Global| May 06 2009
EMU Services: In Near Lockstep With US
April’s jump is the second largest increase in Markit’s e-Area Services PMI index since late 2000. The April surge brings the index up to 43.76 still well below a neutral reading of 50 but that still leaves the index relatively low in [...]
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