Economy Archives - Page 56 of 64

31 Oct 2006

Newspapers Are So 20th Century

Economy

Newspaper circulation is down again, still, according to today’s Wall Street Journal. They write, "Nearly every major U.S. newspaper suffered circulation declines . . ." Ouch. That’s why I’m not reporting on developments in the …

31 Oct 2006

Wage Inflation Moderate

Economy

The employment cost index shows wage inflation NOT accelerating, though benefits costs rose. The press reports two different measures of wage inflation: the employment cost index, and average hourly earnings. Here’s the quarter-to-quarter changes, at …

28 Oct 2006

Savings & Debt

Economy

I’ve written about the bogusosity of the official savings rate statistics, but here’s another slant from the always-remarkable Seth Godin: According to a recent report, more than two-thirds of recent immigrants to the USA send …

28 Oct 2006

GDP Weak–As Expected

Economy

GDP growth was weak, as expected. (Refresher course on GDP: GDP is the value of the goods and services produced in the U.S. On an inflation adjusted basis, which the chart shows, the long-run sustainable …

28 Oct 2006

Homes Prices Down–Except They’re All Up

Economy

James Hamilton at Econbrowser has a great post about the median home price report. using the quarterly figures, where did that 1.7% drop come from? Certainly not from the Northeast, where prices were up 19%. …

26 Oct 2006

New Home Prices Drop Sharply

Economy

The prices at which new homes sold last month was down sharply, the second greatest one-month drop on record. (Records begin in 1963; the worst month was September 1981, in the depths of the recession.) …

26 Oct 2006

Business Capital Spending Strong

Economy

Business capital spending has been a source of strength in the last few years, and continues to boost the economy. This is important not only to manufacturers of equipment, but also to everyone else, because …

25 Oct 2006

What Can a State Do in a Recession?

Business Strategy Economy Public Policy

What can a state do in a recession? I testified on this topic before the Oregon legislature today. Download OrLegTestimony200610.pdfIn the testimony I discuss the risk of recession, the nature of a recession if one …

24 Oct 2006

Oil, Peak Oil, and Recent Price Declines

Economy

James Hamilton has a nice post, quoting David Cohen of The Oil Drum. He explains the standard economic argument that the price of a finite resource being depleted should rise at a percentage rate equal …

19 Oct 2006

Corporate Meetings and Employee Retention

Business Strategy Economy

The Economist magazine recently had a series of article on "The Search for Talent" (subscription required). In one of the articles, they mentioned two things people want from their employer: a sense of being part …

19 Oct 2006

Interest Rates & Foreign Central Banks

Economy

I continue to forecast a one percentage point rise in long-term rates over the next year or so. A key element is that foreign central banks will have less appetite for U.S. treasuries now that …

18 Oct 2006

Wow! Productivity Growth From Year One

Economy

Brad DeLong has a great, short video commentary on the history of economic progress over the last 2000 years. His summary: Productivity growth today is a hundred times the proportional rate it was back before …