recovery

States and local governments cannot rely on the Federal Reserve to print money. As they face financial difficulties not seen since the 1930s, this is significant. We see the consequence of this difference on display daily in the sovereign…

Fedex is often seen as a general proxy for US economic activity in the way that rail or freight traffic or cargo shipments are. They ship to such a wide variety of companies and individuals that they have taken on a bellwether status. …

Hugh Hendry is back writing after a long hiatus. His latest commentary to investors makes for good reading. His thesis: we are in a world of debt deflation for which there are no policy remedies; the Fed is fighting an uphill battle and it…

The deal between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership is not likely to have a significant positive effect on an economy facing severe headwinds pulling in a negative direction. The key fact to remember is that we are…

In the week ending 4 Dec 2010, initial claims for unemployment insurance in the US fell to a seasonally-adjusted figure of 421,000. This is a decrease from the revised 438,000 measured the week prior. The more followed 4-week average figure…

For months, Ben Bernanke has been more or less pleading with fiscal policymakers to catch up to him. With yesterday’s announced agreement on tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits, Congress and the Administration are making the…

Global Economic Intersection announced Monday that its economic indicator (EEI) had slipped slightly into negative territory for the first time since February 2010. Some other economic indicators have shown improvement over their levels…

The number of US workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose 26,000 from last week's outlier 407,000 number. Last week's number was also revised higher to 410,000. Nevertheless, the trend in jobless claims is still down,…

The results from this past Thanksgiving weekend retail shopping blitz are in and consumer spending at real brick-and-mortar stores is barely up from a year ago. Henry Blodget and Aaron Task discuss what these numbers tell us.

The US economy grew at 1.9% for the last decade, the slowest since the 1930s. Given that government spending is going to go down, unemployment is going to take some time to get under control; and with the whole developed world in a mess, it…