Economy in Brief

During the last several months, home prices resumed the decline that was the norm during the prior three years. Since the April 2006 peak, prices have fallen 31.2%. For December, the seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price [...]

The factory sector's recovery built stronger legs this month, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of regional factory sector activity. The figure rose to 35.9 from an unrevised 19.3 in January and it was the [...]

Confidence, as measured by the IFO, is at an all time high among Germany's businessmen engaged in industry and trade. The February release shows that the balance of opinion on the Business Climate was 21.9% an increase of 1.9 [...]

The slack job market has caused participation in the labor force to fall to its lowest since 1984. Last year, of the eligible population of 237.8 million, the participation rate fell to 64.7%. Of the 85.5 million who weren't in the [...]

Retail sales really are strong - UK retail sales showed some power in January Sales spurted by 3% after dropping in December. UK inflation is running at about twice the BOE inflation ceiling, with such high inflation, nominal sales [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased to 410,000 and made up most of the prior week's decline. The earlier week's figure was revised up slightly to 385,000 from 383,000. Nevertheless, claims remained close to the lowest [...]

Pricing power improved last month -- everywhere. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in January, the same as in December, but generally higher than prior months. Consensus expectations were for a 0.3% rise. Core price inflation bumped [...]

In EMU exports are slipping faster than imports and that is keeping the trade deficit in negative numbers. This month Imports fell a bit faster than exports but not by enough to flip the deficit into positive territory. The sequential [...]