Germany logged its highest surplus since March 2018 when it was €21.68b. The surplus in February 2020 hit €21.58b. Powerful forces were at work on both sides of the trade balance in February with exports gaining 1.3% as imports fell [...]
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 09 2020German Trade Surplus Explodes and European Policy Implodes
Global| Apr 08 2020OECD LEIs Hit the Skids
As the pandemic takes its toll and as governments and central backs adopt support programs, the OECD leading economic indicators become important gauges to track. These LEI measures are just beginning to roll over and show weakness [...]
Global| Apr 07 2020German IP Moves Higher But What Happens Next Is Another Matter
We are clearly in a mode of watching numbers and waiting for another shoe to drop. Data through February for the most part are still normal economic data with the usual monthly ebb and flow of trend. There is even a touch of rebound [...]
Global| Apr 06 2020U.K. Sentiment Plunges
U.K. consumer sentiment recorded its biggest fall since records began in January 1974 as policy steps taken to curb the spread of coronavirus weighed on households. The GfK consumer sentiment gauge has plunged in March, but the [...]
Global| Apr 03 2020Composite PMIs Show True and Sudden Weakness
While the deterioration experienced in most PMIs whether sector or composite generally is severe in March, despite the abruptness of the March collapse the table memorializes a long period of slowing that has preceded the current [...]
Global| Apr 01 2020Markit PMIs Fall and Show Weakness in March
Of the eighteen observations on manufacturing PMIs in Table 1, only two entries China and Taiwan improve month-to-month (India and Mexico are ‘unchanged on the month because we use their data from February to fill out the table since [...]
Global| Mar 31 2020China's PMIs Spurt...Is It Over Already? Hardly
China has logged an exceptional snapback in its manufacturing and nonmanufacturing PMIs in March. In February, China shocked the world by posting a manufacturing PMI that fell to 35.7 from 50.0 and a nonmanufacturing PMI that fell to [...]
With shutdowns, lockdowns, and Schengen-defying border closures at work in different places on different timelines, the one constant in the EMU is the weakness that has spread across the euro area. Activity had peaked near the end of [...]
Global| Mar 27 2020Italy Is Whacked by Corona-world
A number of countries are reeling under the sting of the coronavirus and infection of COVID-19 the disease it spawns. But no country is battling harder than Italy whose economy is now starting to show some severe strains. The EU [...]
Global| Mar 26 2020German Confidence Blasted to Smithereens for April
While Angela Merkel's conservative party is rising in the polls for its crisis management skills, the German economy and the German public are nonetheless experiencing greatly deteriorating conditions and expectations. GfK's look- [...]
Global| Mar 25 2020IFO Plunges
German business sentiment logged its steepest fall ever recorded since German reunification. The IFO also released analysis saying that the German economy could contract by 20% because of actions taken to prevent the spread of the [...]
Global| Mar 24 2020Corona Clobbers PMIs; It's Here! Are YOU Next?
We have known for some time that the impact of the coronavirus was coming and that it would hit data. Until now, few reports save last month's PMI for China gave any indication of the severity of the weakness that was encroaching. But [...]
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