Economy in Brief

Japan’s consumer confidence is at a year and one half high. The government has upgraded its economic assessment for the third month in a row. Industrial output is on a tear. IP is up for three months in a row. The past two month’s [...]

Until the current recession started, the U.S. level of foreign trade (exports PLUS imports) was rising sharply with the expansion of the worldwide economy. As a percentage of overall U.S. economic activity, trade was just shy of 30% [...]

Until the current recession started, the U.S. level of foreign trade (exports PLUS imports) was rising sharply with the expansion of the worldwide economy. As a percentage of overall U.S. economic activity, trade was just shy of 30% [...]

Worries about the prospects for the economy and its current position dropped the University of Michigan's July reading of consumer sentiment. The mid-July overall figure fell to 64.6 which was its lowest level since March. Consensus [...]

U.S. import prices last month continued rising with oil prices. The 3.2% rise was more than Consensus expectations for a 2.1% gain and it more than doubled the unrevised May increase of 1.4%. However, as has been the case, earlier [...]

The OECD LEIs are giving off much more optimistic signals theses days. Ordinary progressive growth rates ( 12-mo to 6-mo to 3-mo) in the table’s top panel show that decelerations in the indicators have ceased across the OECD area for [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit reached its lowest level since 1999 as the recession lowered imports enough to offset the rise in oil prices. The deficit of $26.0B shrank from the revised April level of $28.8B. (Data revisions extend [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit reached its lowest level since 1999 as the recession lowered imports enough to offset the rise in oil prices. The deficit of $26.0B shrank from the revised April level of $28.8B. (Data revisions extend [...]