Economic Data

From this morning's Breakfast with Dave missive: FIFTEEN REASONS TO LOVE THE LOONIE (WE COULDN’T STOP AT TEN!) Better growth than in the U.S.A. and without need for stimulus Responsible central bank, limiting growth in its…

By Win Thin Russia central bank First Deputy Chairman Ulyukayev confirmed that it has widened the so-called “floating corridor” for the ruble basket to 32.45-37.45 vs. 32.95-36.95.  The band is now 5 rubles wide, and continues a slow…

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…

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…

Daniel Yergin is the author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book 'The Prize', a stellar run through of the oil industry that is on Credit Writedowns' recommended reading list. Below is a twenty-minute interview of Yergin by the Wall Street…

Earlier in the week, David Rosenberg wrote that he is bullish on energy stocks due to the exogenous shock that tensions in the Middle East are creating in the energy complex. However, this is not a bullish story for overall U.S. growth or…

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…

The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices shows that house prices in the U.S. continue to decline this winter.  For data through December 2010, the broad Composite-20 index is down 2.4% compared to December 2009. The Composite-10…

By Win Thin It’s a tale of two euros when it comes to growth in that region.  Q4 euro zone came in at 2.0% y/y, slightly weaker than expected and up slightly from 1.9% y/y in Q3.  However, the variance within the major euro zone…

Overall, we should credit Germany for building a recovery based not just on exports, but on capital investment and saving. One reason that Germany is a manufacturing and export powerhouse is because it has invested in those businesses.…