Economy in Brief: 2008

The index of U.S. house prices from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) continued moving lower in July. The 0.6% m/m decline from June followed a revised 0.3% dip during that month which was revised from the [...]

Surveys show that both the MFG and services PMI’s slipped in September. But the MFG PMI fell harder. Still, over this relatively short horizon (since January 2006) this is the weakest reading on record for services. For MFG it is the [...]

August data on bank lending to individuals for mortgages and consumer credit were released today by the British Banking Association (BBA), a trade association which comprises Britain's biggest banks. According to the BBA report, [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers reported that chain store sales fell 1.0% last week after an even sharper 1.6% drop during the week prior. The weakness of sales for September so far is reflected in a decline which [...]

Last week, the U.S. pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline reversed most of the prior period's strength. It fell twelve cents to an average of $3.72, according to the U.S. Department of Energy survey. The price still was [...]

Last week, the U.S. pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline reversed most of the prior period's strength. It fell twelve cents to an average of $3.72, according to the U.S. Department of Energy survey. The price still was [...]

Japan’s all-industries index and tertiary index are up in the month and still very high in their historic ranges going back to the early 1990s. By contrast the construction sector is extremely weak with little evidence of any [...]

In some of the past financial crises, one could limit risks by diversifying into emerging markets. Over the past several weeks, however, the stock markets in many of the emerging countries have suffered the same fate as that of the [...]