Viewpoints: 2020

All states (as well as DC) saw real GDP decline in the first quarter. The rate of decline was heavily influenced by how rapidly the state responded to the onset of the pandemic, as well as its specific industry mix. New York and [...]

Both the employment report and the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) survey of manufacturers for June show a strong "bounce" in jobs and new orders from very depressed levels. The financial markets view the data as another sign of [...]

China's manufacturing PMI gained ground at a snail's pace recovering the minor ground lost in May. China's manufacturing PMI has been above 50 every month this year except for February when the virus outbreak led to a shutdown in [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's state coincident index map is again completely red- all 50 states saw drops of least 1 percent from February to May. The smallest drop in this period was Arizona's 4.9 percent; Hawaii plunged [...]

European financial markets welcomed the news earlier this week that June's flash purchasing managers indices for the Eurozone and the UK had recovered much of the ground that they lost in April and May. The headline composite index [...]

The first quarter personal income data reflected the initial impact of the pandemic. Two travel and tourism-heavy states, Hawaii and Nevada, were quite weak, with annual growth rates of -0.1 percent (Hawaii) and 1.0 percent (Nevada). [...]

May's improvement in the labor market varied across the nation. While 38 states (including D.C.) experienced statistically significant declines in their unemployment rates (led by an astonishing 5.7 percentage point plunge in [...]

Mr. Cohen criticized my article of June 8, BLS Failed Its Mandate: "Fearless Publication of the Facts", stating my arguments were "exaggerated, misleading, and inaccurate". Let me respond to Mr. Cohen's key points. First, the data in [...]