While France’s services sector is holding up pretty well the consumer is not keeping up that sort of pace. Consumer confidence fell by one point in December but the index has lost 16 points from its peak in this cycle and 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| Jan 04 2008French Consumer Confidence Continues to Slide
- Global| Jan 04 2008
Service Sector Still Pummeled in Europe…France Excepted
The chart tells a clear story of malaise and decline in Europe’s service sector. Survey readings for services industries in the overall community are weak. Individual countries are weak across the board with the exception of France [...]
- Global| Dec 21 2007
Service Sector Hits the Skids in France
The service sector is beginning to ease in France. The index is down form its peak if 113 in October. As a percent of its range the December reading is still in the top 17% of its range. The outlook reading at +3 stands in the 80.6 [...]
- Global| Dec 21 2007
UK Consumer Confidence Continues to Plunge
The GFK consumer sentiment report for the UK continues to plunge and it is one of the clearest signs of trouble in the UK economy. The CBI survey on retailing earlier had signaled some weakness and expectations of a softer January to [...]
- Global| Dec 20 2007
Belgium Bank Index Weakens Again
…points lower for E-zone readings to come. The Belgian National bank releases its barometer indices ahead of the EU each month. The Belgian indices turn out to be harbingers of the EU releases to come. While Belgium is a small [...]
- Global| Dec 20 2007
Italy’s Consumer Confidence Remains Flat After Early-in-the-Year Dive
Consumer is mostly downbeat throughout main EU nations. Italy’s consumer confidence fell early in 2007 and has remained in a narrowed lower range ever since. Despite an ongoing rise in the Euro and weaker results in other Euro-area [...]
- Global| Dec 19 2007
Italy’s Orders Sag and Drop in New Quarter
Italy’s new orders are off in October, led by weakness in foreign orders on the month. But that drop only offsets the rise the month before. Domestic order weakness remains despite the 1.7% rise in October. Over three months both [...]
- Global| Dec 19 2007
IFO Presages Weak EMU Reading for Germany as Well
The IFO index for December is out, but the detail awaits releases next week. The headlines and sector news tell us what we already knew and that is, conditions are still deteriorating. The Business climate and Current situation [...]
- Global| Dec 19 2007
UK CBI Retail Survey Continues to Deflate Messy-nomics
It’s telling when an organization like the CBI says that the expected January reading of -5 still corresponds to an annual volume increase of 2.5%. But the result of December is the weakest in a bit over one year (since Nov 2006). The [...]
- Global| Dec 18 2007
EMU Trade Surplus Grows as Flows Slow
It may seem curious that so many Europeans are complaining about the strength of the euro while Europe’s economic data are off peak but are not collapsing and as the Euro Area trade surplus is still growing in October. Growing – the [...]
- Global| Dec 17 2007
Japan Tertiary Index Bounces
As we saw earlier, Japan’s mining and manufacturing index is holding up after some special factors weakened it earlier in the year. Now the tertiary index is stabilizing in October. It rose to 110.9 in October but its 12 month change [...]
- Global| Dec 17 2007
NTC FLASH Indices for E-Zone MFG and Services - Still Struggling
The NTC MFG and Services indices for the E-zone slipped in December in their flash release. Services are below their three month and six month and 12-month average values. Manufacturing is too, except for the three month comparison. [...]
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