Economy in Brief: 2010

The chart on money supply tells a good story about what is happening with global liquidity. Before the financial crisis, money supply growth in the major monetary center countries and regions was generally strong and excessive. In the [...]

This is the early release of the German IFO report. It shows a much brighter picture of the economy in Germany than had been expected. On first release Germany’s IFO does not provide us with that rich detail for which that the index [...]

What the Federal government gives, it can take away. And the removal of the $8,000 home-buyer tax credit wreaked more havoc on home sales last month. The Census Department indicated that July new home sales fell 12.4% to 276,000, [...]

By itself, a 0.3% gain in July durable goods orders might be an encouraging sign from the Commerce Department for factory sector growth. But several aspects of the report paint a dimmer picture of the U.S. manufacturing sector. 1) The [...]

Growth surprise in orders - Industrial orders in EMU surpassed expectations in June as May's 4% order surge was followed by a 2.5% gain in June. Still April saw a fall of 0.2% and that took the top off of the three-month growth rate [...]

Growth surprise in orders - Industrial orders in EMU surpassed expectations in June as May's 4% order surge was followed by a 2.5% gain in June. Still April saw a fall of 0.2% and that took the top off of the three-month growth rate [...]

Belgian business leaders appear to be shrugging off warnings of an economic slow down. They have expressed more confidence in the economic outlook over the last two months. The National Bank of Belgium's confidence indicator rose from [...]

Consumers showed less spending restraint last week after a pullback from July's largess. Weekly chain store sales nudged up 0.2% but that still left sales off 1.4% from the July high. So far this month, sales are down 0.5% from the [...]