Economy

Those are the numbers. But this month’s unemployment rate and the non-farm payrolls number are less important this go round. The devil is in the details here because we have some major benchmark revisions and that means changes to…

Xie believes the Chinese economy is in no near-term threat. But he does see problems down the line because of a property bubble. He recommends even more monetary tightening to reduce the ill effects of this bubble. Xie comments on the U.S.…

This past Monday I was on the BBC talking about the recently unveiled Fiscal Year 2011 Budget proposed by the Obama Administration for the U.S. Federal Government.  The budget is, as with most things Obama, a tightrope walk between the…

This morning, I left just in time to see the U.S. Department of Labor’s jobless claims numbers for the preceding week.  They were not good.  Initial claims hit 480,000 for the week ending 30 Jan 2010, pushing the 4-week average up…

This map comes via Gallup. The jobs picture is worst in the west and best in the south. See Gallup’s analysis of the data at the link below: Source In January, Most Job Creation in U.S. South and East - Gallup

In his latest post, Edward Hugh marvels at the Spanish population’s optimism that the economy will soon turn. While they correctly judge the current situation as abysmal, for whatever reason, the Spanish believe things will turn up…

This post was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. According to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) the ICC-ICO (consumer confidence index) went up in January by 6.1 points from its December value and is now at its highest…

If you have been watching the news flow in the last month, you would certainly have the impression that there are an increasing number of large layoffs – Sam’s Club being a notable one.  Before January, the jobless claims numbers…

Below is a Jim Chanos video on China now making the rounds in the financial blogosphere.  Chanos says that most financial bubbles are the result of excess credit creation and believes that is exactly what we are witnessing in…

This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. The global manufacturing expansion continued to gather momentum in January. Coming in at 56.1, up from 54.6 in December, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing Purchasing…