Post Tagged with: "economic recovery"
Sales Season Roundup
by Annaly Capital Management Seasonally adjusted greetings to Annaly Salvos readers around the world! In the commercial spirit of the season (and a day early for our blog post this week), we thought we’d go down a level from the headline retail sales numbers, which have been trending strongly of late. In November, retail sales
The Looming State Budget Crisis
States and local governments cannot rely on the Federal Reserve to print money. As they face financial difficulties not seen since the 1930s, this is significant. We see the consequence of this difference on display daily in the sovereign bond market; the United States and the United Kingdom have exceptionally low long-term interest rates despite
Fedex disappoints; should we care?
Fedex is often seen as a general proxy for US economic activity in the way that rail or freight traffic or cargo shipments are. They ship to such a wide variety of companies and individuals that they have taken on a bellwether status. Unfortunately, they released some disappointing earnings today. Given the recent spate of
Hendry: There Are No Policy Remedies for Debt Deflation
Hugh Hendry is back writing after a long hiatus. His latest commentary to investors makes for good reading. His thesis: we are in a world of debt deflation for which there are no policy remedies; the Fed is fighting an uphill battle and it will lose. Long-time readers will now I agree with the thrust
Market Still Facing Major Risks
The deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership is not likely to have a significant positive effect on an economy facing severe headwinds pulling in a negative direction. The key fact to remember is that we are in an economic recovery that will remain restrained by the after-effects of a major credit crisis
Jobless claims down 17,000; 4-week average also down
In the week ending 4 Dec 2010, initial claims for unemployment insurance in the US fell to a seasonally-adjusted figure of 421,000. This is a decrease from the revised 438,000 measured the week prior. The more followed 4-week average figure also fell to 427,500, down 4,000 from the week-ago period. Notice that the non-seasonally adjusted
Jobs and Taxes
For months, Ben Bernanke has been more or less pleading with fiscal policymakers to catch up to him. With yesterday’s announced agreement on tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits, Congress and the Administration are making the first tentative steps in that direction
December Outlook Slightly Brighter
Global Economic Intersection announced Monday that its economic indicator (EEI) had slipped slightly into negative territory for the first time since February 2010. Some other economic indicators have shown improvement over their levels earlier in the second half of 2010. Additional economic factors also show modest improvement, such as the decline of Weekly Initial Unemployment
Jobless claims up 26,000 but 4-week average falls to lowest since August 2008
The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose 26,000 from last week’s outlier 407,000 number. Last week’s number was also revised higher to 410,000. Nevertheless, the trend in jobless claims is still down, with the 4-week average for jobless claims reaching 431,000, its lowest level since August
Black Friday Results Point To Two-Tier Economy
The results from this past Thanksgiving weekend retail shopping blitz are in and consumer spending at real brick-and-mortar stores is barely up from a year ago. Henry Blodget and Aaron Task discuss what these numbers tell us
Recessions are on the Margin
The US economy grew at 1.9% for the last decade, the slowest since the 1930s. Given that government spending is going to go down, unemployment is going to take some time to get under control; and with the whole developed world in a mess, it is hard to see an economic environment where we can average 3.5% a year for this decade. It is going to be another Muddle Through decade. Unless you are on the margin
On multi-year recovery despite global tensions and other links
I will be on RT TV America tonight at 1745 ET talking about the G-20 and the Deficit Commission. Tomorrow morning at 1200 GMT (7AM ET), I will be on BBC World News saying more about the G-20. I hope I have something positive to say because there is a lot of friction right now