Economy in Brief

Personal income matched expectations and rose 0.3% last month following a revised 0.2% June increase, initially reported as 0.1%. Disposable income also rose a slightly improved 0.3%. These gains, however, were eroded by a faster [...]

It's easy to get exasperated these days with the stubborn sluggishness in the U.S. economy. GDP data reported this morning highlight one continuing cause, the dramatic correction in the homebuilding sector. Other recent reports [...]

Money supply is moving in all different directions across the main monetary center countries. These disparate movements reflect the various paths these key countries have taken in dealing with the financial distress. The UK has [...]

The headline on the Commerce Department's revision of Q2 real GDP shows a cut to 1.0% growth (SAAR) from the 1.3% reported a month ago. However, domestic final sales were strengthened to 1.1% from 0.5% in the advance release. This [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims remained above 400,000 yet again, but at least this week there is one good reason for this elevated level: the strike of union members against Verizon Communications. Indeed, the Labor Department [...]

The UK distributive trades sector is still floundering. The sales metric for August compared to one year ago fell to -20 from +4 in July a huge month-to-month drop. Orders from one year ago fell to -15 from -7. Sales for "the time of [...]

New orders for durable goods rebounded by 4.0% last month and both June and May were revised higher, June from -2.1% to -1.3% and May from 1.9% to 2.0%. The July gain was mainly in transportation; the total excluding transportation [...]

There is no mistaking the sector trends in the chart for the German IFO index. Sectors are losing momentum and that loss of momentum has accelerated. While there is some DENIAL economics in train I think we are best off swallowing the [...]