Economy in Brief: 2008

The National Activity Index (CFNAI) from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank for November continued on a downtrend and remained in recession territory. The latest reading of -2.47 followed a short-lived October bounce back from two [...]

Business climate fell to 73 from 79 to a low since January of 1990 and tied for a life of series low last reached in June 1993 in this 35 year series. The recent trend and likely trend responses are also at their lowest since 2000. [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank indicated, with its December Business Activity Index, a level of U.S. economic weakness that rivals the lows of the series' forty year history. The bank reported that its December Index of General [...]

The Conference Board indicated that it's composite index of leading economic indicators fell during November by 0.4% after a slightly revised 0.9% October decline. The peak for the index was in July of last year and the six-month [...]

The IFO index fell to 82.6 in December from 85.8 in November. The current situation index fell to 88.8 in Dec. from 94.9 in Nov. Business expectations decreased to 76.8 from 77.6. The IFO index is much weaker in 2008 than it was in [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance dipped by an expected 21,000. The decline to 554,000, however, reversed only a third of the prior week's 60,000 increase which was revised up slightly. As a result claims remained [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance dipped by an expected 21,000. The decline to 554,000, however, reversed only a third of the prior week's 60,000 increase which was revised up slightly. As a result claims remained [...]

Our series on UK retail sales goes back to 1986. On that basis the current retail sales metrics are largely at their lowest for the entire series across measures except for inventories. Inventory-to-sales ratios are high, in the top [...]