Economy in Brief

Japan issued a host of data today, as is its custom at month-end. Today we found housing starts rose, retail sales rose and so did industrial output. The gains in these series were not huge but in general Japan’s indicators beat [...]

It's still recovery - The EMU recovery remains in place as the Economic Sentiment index has risen again in August. Despite some rather extreme pessimism following 'Europe's' strong Q2 GDP showing we find that post-Q2 economic [...]

The European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the twenty seven countries of the European Union increased in August to 102.7 from 102.0 in July and for the 16 countries of the Euro Area, to 101.8 from 101.1 in July. [...]

One way or another, U.S. consumers know how to do what they're paid to do. Personal consumption during July increased a firm 0.4% following an unrevised dip during June. The increase beat Consensus expectations for a 0.3% gain. Though [...]

It's one of the main lessons the study of economics can teach. When something goes bad, less of it is wanted. This year, the percentage of underwritten mortgages in arrears broached 10.0%. Going back to 1972, when the data first [...]

The latest two reports on consumer sentiment suggest a gloomy state of affairs. First, the full-month August figure of 68.9 from the University of Michigan was lower than the mid-month reading. Second, this figure was nearly the [...]

Japan's CPI fell in July dropping by 0.3% month-to-month. Over three-months the inflation rate is decelerating faster at a pace of -1.6% even as it is slowing its pace over six months compared to 12-months. But ex-food and energy [...]

Disappointing news about the current economic recovery continued with today's report that U.S. real GDP growth last quarter was revised down. The new figure of 1.6% (AR) compared to 2.4% in the advance report. Still, the latest was [...]