Economy in Brief: January 2009

It wasn't bad enough that December nonfarm payrolls were cut 524,000, but downward revisions to prior months left payrolls for the twelve months off 1.9% from one year earlier. That was the weakest performance since the sharp [...]

It wasn't bad enough that December nonfarm payrolls were cut 524,000, but downward revisions to prior months left payrolls for the twelve months off 1.9% from one year earlier. That was the weakest performance since the sharp [...]

The table above summaries the overall EU and sector sentiment gauges. In the bottom panel the EMU and country indices are presented. The blue percentile panel presents the raw readings as a percentage in their all range of values. [...]

German orders are plunging dropping by 6% in November, 6.3% in October and by 8.3% in October. That is quite a string of losing numbers. Order are falling at about a 50% annual rate in the fourth quarter an that is true of orders both [...]

U.S. consumer credit usage dropped during November for the third month in the last four. The Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit outstanding fell $8.0 billion m/m after a $2.8B October decline that was slightly shallower [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell again. The 24,000 week-to-week decline to 467,000 followed a revised decline of 98,000 during Christmas week. The latter decline was widely attributed to an aberrant seasonal [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell again. The 24,000 week-to-week decline to 467,000 followed a revised decline of 98,000 during Christmas week. The latter decline was widely attributed to an aberrant seasonal [...]

Short term inflation: dropping like a feather in a vacuum Like the HICP report the EMU PPI report shows a sharp ongoing drop in prices. Inflation has been cut sharply over short horizons. The headline (X construction) is dropping at [...]