Category: Economy

Housing starts declined 6.8% in July to a 1.238 million annual rate, well below the consensus expected 1.333 million.  Starts […]

Industrial production declined 0.6% in July (-1.1% including revisions to prior months), below the consensus expected drop of 0.3%.  Utilities […]

Retail sales rose 1.0% in July (+0.8% including revisions to prior months), beating the consensus expected gain of 0.4%.  Retail […]

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% in July, matching consensus expectations.  The CPI is up 2.9% from a year […]

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.1% in July, coming in below the consensus expected increase of 0.2%.  Producer prices […]

The growth of bureaucracy around the world has led to a proliferation of rules.  This creates multitudes of problems, one […]

As Milton Friedman taught us many decades ago, monetary policy works with long and variable lags.  Recent economic reports suggest […]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 114,000 in July lagging the consensus expected 175,000.  Payroll gains for May and June were revised down […]

The ISM Manufacturing Index declined to 46.8 in July, widely lagging the consensus expected 48.8. (Levels higher than 50 signal […]

Nonfarm productivity (output per hour) increased 2.3% at an annual rate in the second quarter, beating the consensus expected gain […]

Could this be the last Fed meeting before rate cuts begin?  With inflation moderating and job growth weakening, the Fed […]

Listen to enough politicians and it won’t take long to hear about the lack of “affordable” healthcare, drugs, daycare, and […]

Personal income rose 0.2% in June (+0.1% including revisions to prior months), lagging the consensus expected 0.4%. Personal consumption rose […]

New orders for durable goods declined 6.6% in June (-6.5% including revisions to prior months), falling well short of the […]

Real GDP increased at a 2.8% annual rate in Q2, beating the consensus expected 2.0%. The largest positive contributions to […]