Economy in Brief: February 2010

Consumers steered away from credit last year. In fact, they avoided it to a record degree as the outstanding balance fell by $102.3B, or 4.0%, by yearend from 2008. Released late on Friday, the December decline of $1.8B was the [...]

Consumers steered away from credit last year. In fact, they avoided it to a record degree as the outstanding balance fell by $102.3B, or 4.0%, by yearend from 2008. Released late on Friday, the December decline of $1.8B was the [...]

The six-month progressions show that the OECD LEIs are getting progressively stronger. Over 12-months growth rates are positive; annualized rates accelerate over six months but growth rates backed off over three months. The OECD and [...]

Past gloom in the job market eased last month. During January the unemployment rate fell to 9.7%, its lowest level since August. Expectations had been for a stable 10.0% unemployment rate. Nevertheless, the figure hardly suggests [...]

Past gloom in the job market eased last month. During January the unemployment rate fell to 9.7%, its lowest level since August. Expectations had been for a stable 10.0% unemployment rate. Nevertheless, the figure hardly suggests [...]

actory shipments surged for the fourth straight month during December. The 1.9% increase followed an upwardly revised 1.6% November gain and it was the fourth straight month of strong increase. Shipments of nondurables were strong all [...]

German Industrial orders are still rising Yr/Yr but they took a steep fall in December dropping by 2.3%. Foreign orders led the way lower falling by 3.2% with domestic-sourced orders off by just 1.4% Overall MFG sales also fell in [...]

Worker productivity surged during the fourth quarter. Employers kept a tight hold on costs as the economic recovery began to take hold. The 6.2% (AR) jump in 4Q productivity followed a downwardly revised 7.2% 3Q gain but it pulled [...]