The real economy in the U.S. is already in recession, even as we fight the effects of a financial market meltdown. Industrial production numbers for the United States came out and it was down a massive 1.1% for August. That means a negative number for GDP in Q3 is all but assured.
While we [...]

The FT reports:
The eurozone economy has shown fresh signs of spluttering, with German industrial production dropping unexpectedly sharply in May – the strongest monthly fall since August 1997.-FT, 7 Jul 2008
This is the latest sign in a string of reports that point to a deepening slowdown in the heart of Europe. Just [...]

The latest bit out from the U.S. is that the services sector has unexpectedly contracted.
From Bloomberg News:
U.S. service industries unexpectedly contracted in June as a gauge of prices soared to a record and employment reached an all-time low.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, which make up almost 90 percent of the [...]

After finding that UK and European manufacturing are in the doldrums, today we hear that UK services are also contracting. This surely must mean that the UK is in or will soon be in recession.
From Bloomberg News:
U.K. services from airlines to the finance industry contracted last month by the most since October 2001 and [...]

The well-deserved euphoria over the European Championship in football has brought welcome relief to Spanish consumers, weighed down by a slow economy. However, global economies have not decoupled from the U.S. slowdown. European economies are suffering, Denmark having already declared recession.
In this piece I am going to take a look at the Spanish economy and [...]

Industrial production and capacity utilization numbers were released by the Fed this morning. These numbers are important because production is one of five factors the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) looks at to judge recessions. The numbers were not good.

Production was down y-o-y for the first time since May 2002 besides a [...]

The U.S. has been flashing red regarding recession for some time despite the naysayers.First, let me define recession because you usually hear that it’s two consecutive quarters of a decline in real GDP. Not exactly. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the official arbiter of recessions says:
The NBER does not define a [...]