Economy

The February 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business came out today confirming the strong manufacturing reading we got yesterday from the Chicago PMI. The National PMI came in at 61.4%, ahead of consensus expectations for 60.5% and up…

By William K. Black I write to contrast four recent stories about Countrywide. Here are their headlines and brief synopses provided in the initial paragraphs of the stories. U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo…

By Claus Vistesen As the debate between the inflationistas and deflationistas appears about to rev up again, I thought that I would try to put pen to virtual paper and sketch out my thoughts on the matter. The specific catalyst for…

Today's release on U.S. Personal Income and Outlays from January 2011 was a nice change of pace from the worries that food and commodity price inflation have caused over the past month. We saw personal income up an annualized $133 billion…

This year's winner for Best Documentary is "Inside Job' by Charles Ferguson. In accepting his Oscar, Ferguson said: "Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by…

As part of the US policy response to the global crisis, the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act calls for regulators to identify systemically risky financial firms – the sort that took the US financial crisis global. But how to identify these…

Retail sales have recovered to pre-recession levels, but not when adjusted for population growth. With that considered sales are only at 1999 levels and less than half of the recession's decline has been recovered.

The upshot of all this is that oil prices will probably remain high and could very well rise significantly even from current levels. For the U.S., studies indicate that every $1 rise in the price of a barrel of oil is about equivalent to a…

U.S. exports of sea containers are up 13% YoY. Imports too are up 13% YoY. This is indicating a growing trade balance deficit, since exports exceed imports.

It turns out, according to most interpretations of the SAFE report, that the speculators creating the hot-money inflows are not the much-vilified foreign hedge funds – surprise, surprise – but Chinese businessmen bringing money into the…