Economy in Brief: 2011

The U.S. Government ran a $129.4 billion budget deficit in July, bringing fiscal 2011 to date to $1,099.9 billion, according to the U.S. Treasury's "Monthly Treasury Statement". Forecasters had estimated $140.0 billion for the month, [...]

The German headline inflation rate has more or less paused near its recent Yr/Yr peak pace. Core inflation (ex-seasonal food and energy ) is still pushing higher. The headline HICP rose by 0.3% this month. The core reading (available [...]

Total mortgage applications jumped 21.7% in the week through August 5, to 688.0 (March 16, 1990 = 100). The gain was in applications to refinance, which surged 30.4% to 3,625.7; those for home purchase remained sluggish with a [...]

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee today left the Federal funds rate in a "range from 0 to 1/4 percent." The Fed funds rate has remained unchanged since late-2008 at its lowest level ever. The discount rate also was left [...]

The Haver Database INTDAILY contains much of the data needed to portray many of the aspects of the current financial crisis. Interest rate spreads can be calculated from the interest rate data. We have calculated the spreads between [...]

Chain store sales slipped 0.5% last week following a 0.3% dip during the week prior. Nevertheless, sales remained up 3.6% y/y. During the last ten years there has been a 66% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and [...]

Weakened demand helped the pump price for regular gasoline fall four cents last week to $3.67 per gallon. Prices remained down twenty-nine cents since the May peak. Pump prices usually rise this time of year with increased seasonal [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its index of small business optimism fell to 89.9 last month from an unrevised 90.8 in June. The latest was the lowest level since last September. Deterioration was [...]