The Bank of England Agents’ Survey is an aid to the BOE for policymaking. The survey is a series of judgmental responses that are scored on a scale from +5 to -5. A simple weighting of the responses shows this to be the weakest survey [...]
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| Jun 18 2020BOE Agents' Survey Remains Very Weak
- Global| Jun 17 2020
Japan's Trade Trends Continue to Erode
Japan was once an international trade juggernaut. It was unstoppable. Its exports flooded worldwide markets and Japan's trade surpluses were large and enduring. But that was then. Japan is still a very important global trader and [...]
- Global| Jun 16 2020
ZEW Expectations Jump But the Survey Continues to Point to Difficulties
The ZEW macroeconomic index 'improved' slightly in the EMU, rising to -89.6 in June from -95.0 in May. The gain on the month is small and the reading itself is still at an exceptionally weak mark. Germany improved to an -83.1 reading; [...]
- Global| Jun 15 2020
Euro Area Trade Surplus Nearly Evaporates in a Single Month
The EMU trade situation saw an extremely sharp deterioration in its surplus in April. The surplus dropped from €25.5bln to €1.2bln in one month! It is by far the sharpest monthly setback on data back to January 1999. EMU experienced [...]
- Global| Jun 12 2020
Japan's IP Is Very Weak...and 'Hope' Is a Four-Letter Word
Japan's industrial production index fell sharply in April and on revision the drop has been revised slightly smaller. However, the drop is still enormous and it came on the heels of a substantial drop in March and a small decline in [...]
- Global| Jun 11 2020
Italian IP Takes a Walloping As Much of Europe Takes a Beating
Italian industrial production has been decimated over the last two months, falling by 30.7% in March then falling again by 21.4% in April. Both are month-to-month percentage changes. Over three months, IP is falling at a 91.5% annual [...]
- Global| Jun 10 2020
Japan's Surveys Show Gathering Weakness
Japan's various economic surveys tell a consistent, depressing… and familiar story on the economy. The final two columns of the table rank the various readings on growth and on index level. The readings are uniformly and extremely [...]
- Global| Jun 09 2020
All-Time Record Drop in German Exports
Germany has just logged trade data for April and the results are dismal to abysmal. The surplus that was €21.4bln in February dropped to €12.8bln in March and plunged to €3.2bln in April, an extremely rapid stepdown. This is the [...]
- Global| Jun 08 2020
German Industrial Production Follows New Orders Lower; Records One-Month Drop in IP at -17.9%
The German industrial data are very consistent. All measures are showing extreme weakness in April. April data have been among the most consistently weak in Western economics. In April output in the capital goods sector is the weakest [...]
- Global| Jun 05 2020
German Orders Plunge in April
Germany's orders plunged in April, falling by 25.8% m/m after a 15.0% drop in March. The two-month decline for overall orders, for foreign orders, and for domestic orders each are the largest two-month drops seen on German data back [...]
- Global| Jun 04 2020
Euro Area Retail Sales Fall Again
Euro area retail sales fell sharply again, dropping by 11.7% in April after a 11.1% decline in March. However, as May ended, European countries were in various stages of reopening their economies after battening down the hatches to [...]
- Global| Jun 03 2020
Euro Area Unemployment Rate Falls; Italy's Rate Hits a 12-Year Low!
Unemployment rates in the U.S. economy have been a matter of controversy for some time. This month the data from Europe are eye opening and it reminds us why we need to think about what economic data mean as well as to report them and [...]
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