Economy in Brief: 2011

The economic environment is OK for now, but a recession is on the way. That's the reading of the environment reflected in the Conference Board's August Index of Consumer Confidence. It fell by one-quarter m/m to 44.5 after a moderate, [...]

During the last several weeks, the early-summer decline in petroleum costs leveled off. The pump price for regular gasoline rose a nickel last week to $3.63 per gallon, its highest in a month. Nevertheless, prices remained down [...]

The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index slipped another 0.1% during June following a like performance during May which was little-revised. Nevertheless, during the last twelve months prices have fallen 4.6% after [...]

The Italian index of consumer confidence from ISAE fell hard this month and shows a continuing unraveling in confidence. Yet the overall situation for the last 12-months, at first glance, does not seem too bad. Even at a raw score of [...]

The Statistical Office of Lithuania today raised its estimate of the year to year growth in second quarter GDP to 6.3% from the 6.1% released on July 28. The three Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, were among the [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing single-family homes slipped 1.3% last month after an unrevised 2.4% June increase. Sales were slightly higher than the Q2 average but remained well [...]

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 [...]