Europe was hit especially hard in Q1. The year-on-year growth rates for this cluster of reporters is at or near the lowest they have posted since end-1997. European economies generally were hit a bit earlier than the U.S. That is [...]
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| Apr 30 2020EMU GDP Takes a Deep Dive; Everyone Holds Their Breath
- Global| Apr 29 2020
EU Indexes Fall Hard
There is no-catching the dropping, tumbling knife There is not much to analyze in the EU indexes this month. The bottom fell out and everything went down with it. One sector, construction, shows some 'resilience' (as it has been doing [...]
- Global| Apr 28 2020
French INSEE Surveys Show a Sharp Shift in Sentiment
The French surveys have been very weak in April (graph/table). The household survey (table), despite its seemingly mild drop in April, has actually logged the largest month-to-month drop (a drop of 8 points) in the history of the [...]
- Global| Apr 27 2020
Finland's Consumer Confidence to All-Time Low...Among Other Things
Finland's consumer confidence index has short history, but in the graphic we overlay the longer-lived EU measure of confidence against the Finnish domestic measure and the sharp recent collapse in the recent index is starkly revealed. [...]
- Global| Apr 24 2020
Germany's IFO Plunges to All-New Depths
This is not snorkeling or even deep sea diving; it requires a bathyscaphe. The German IFO has sunk to new depths even after a substantial plunge a month ago. All of the rankings display severe weakness with the ongoing lone exception [...]
- Global| Apr 23 2020
Germany: The Hammer Falls on Confidence in May
The expectation for German confidence in May has taken the sharpest, deepest and broadest turn for the worse on record. The German April reading had taken 'a step down' and a significant one at that. But the full realization of what [...]
- Global| Apr 22 2020
U.K. Inflation Steps Back; COVID-19 Lurks Less Than People Think
U.K. inflation has remained tame. In December there was a broad-based acceleration, but that has dissipated in February and March. In March and February, only about 21% of the major categories and the headline accelerated month-to- [...]
- Global| Apr 21 2020
ZEW Experts Show Wild Swings in Expectations and More
It's down, it's up, it's down, it's up...it's confused! The table below shows the percentile standings of the ZEW assessments this month on different gauges. The bottom of the table offers various summary statistics among them the [...]
- Global| Apr 20 2020
EMU Trade Surpluses Expand As the Virus Swirls
In the EMU, neither exports nor imports show much zest. But exports had some life in their year-on-year trend and that is helping to drive a wider surplus in the EMU area. Broadly both exports and imports are fluctuating in relatively [...]
- Global| Apr 17 2020
Japan's IP Falls in February...It's Only the Beginning
Japan's industrial production fell by 0.3% in February after two straight months of gains with January having been especially strong. Mixed trends Japan's industrial production trend has two distinct aspects. From 12-months to six- [...]
- Global| Apr 16 2020
EMU IP Ticks Lower in February; The Worst Still Lies Ahead
The only sure things in life are death, taxes and the fact that the coronavirus will haunt you if not stalk you down. The February IP accounting from the EMU is the last report from the EMU on IP before the abject weakness from the [...]
- Global| Apr 15 2020
KABOOM! The Lockdown Strikes
French retail sales fall 24% Record fall in Aussie consumer confidence Canada's GDP falls 9% in March U.S. data plunge: retail sales -8.7%, Empire State index -78.2, IP -5.4% The global rout is on! Tally… HALT! I can write about [...]
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