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Most of Bill’s current writings appear on Forbes.com where he is a Senior Contributor.

25 Apr 2006

Consumers Happy

Economy
Consumer confidence rose this month, according to the Conference Board. Watching consumers directly makes more sense than asking them questions, but there’s some comfort in having the survey response match the behavior.  Right now confidence …
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20 Apr 2006

Big Cities Losing Population

Economy
The Census reports that our largest metropolitan areas have more people moving out than moving in, excluding foreign immigration.  Not only are the old northeastern cities losing domestic residents, but so are Los Angeles and …
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20 Apr 2006

World Economic Outlook

Economy
Need to follow economic developments around the world?  A good starting place is the International Monetary Fund’s semi-annual World Economic Outlook.  The IMF just issued their April 2006 report.  Read it here.  It’s long and …
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18 Apr 2006

Housing Starts Lowest in 12 Months

Economy
Last month’s housing starts were the lowest in 12 months: The month-to-month figures bounce around a lot, but this is definitely a down bounce.  I think new housing construction is past its peak and headed …
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14 Apr 2006

Immigration’s Impact on Low-Wage Americans

Public Policy
Nice, short, readable article by an economics professor (wow!) about immigration.  Read it here.  Key takeaways from Alan  Krueger’s article:1) the best research suggests that foreign immigrants don’t depress the wages or employment opportunities of …
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14 Apr 2006

Homebuying for Investment (Speculation?)

Economy
The National Association of Realtors reports that last year, 27.7 percent of all home sales were for investment purposes, while another 12.2 percent were vacation homes.  Read the NAR press release.This is consistent with my …
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14 Apr 2006

Industry Chugging Forward

Economy
Industrial production moved forward at a very nice pace last month.  Although the overall figure gets the headline, I prefer to look at manufacturing production.  The total number also includes utilities and mining, and weather …
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13 Apr 2006

Retail Sales Strong

Economy
March was a good month for retail sales.  Although car sales helped a lot, most other retail sectors moved forward as well. The weak sectors were electronics retailers and gas stations, the latter because prices …
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12 Apr 2006

Foreign Trade Declined

Economy
Most headlines are reading "Foreign Trade DEFICIT Declined," but I’m not very interested in the trade deficit.  It’s hard to see that it’s affecting us much.  After all, the most widely expected result of the …
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