The ongoing lesson in PMI interpretation added another layer with China’s turn. The official manufacturing PMI dropped back to 50.1in April from 50.2 in March. Last month’s rise above 50 was the first in that position since last July. Because of the mainstream interpretation about what 50 or not 50 means, it was taken then as if it were definitive [...]
If there is any wonder why PMI’s deserve scorn, this morning’s twin bill delivered solid reasoning. Both the ISM Manufacturing Index and the Markit Manufacturing PMI declined, and both remained above 50. However, there was no real consensus about what any of it meant. Depending on the media outlet determining commentary about either, there was both positive and negative spin [...]
To economists nothing about the 2000’s makes sense (a condition that has only grown worse in the 2010’s). At the same time productivity growth suddenly disappears, in its place is this incomprehensible “global savings glut.” While it has been tempting to dismiss these shifts as anomalies, even orthodox economists cannot just ignore them given the history of the past decade [...]
The assumed relationship between inflation and employment, unemployment really, has been tortured in the last half century. Given the constant mistakes economists make in this regard, it is fair to conclude that they really don’t have much idea at all about the connection. There is a fatal conceit contained within the orthodox views here that starts with misunderstandings about money [...]
There was more bad news for the FOMC over the past few days beside the once again near-zero GDP estimate. If the labor market were truly growing as is claimed, we should be finding “inflation” in a broad set of different economic views. From the standard inflation calculations to various estimates for wages or income, by now it should be [...]
The emphasis on the labor market has become ubiquitous but it is not being used in the manner with which it should be used. It is now permanently attached to words like “despite” or “in contrast” no matter which economic data point is being described. The Wall Street Journal provides a perfect example in writing about the latest update for [...]
On December 27, 1990, changes to Regulation D went into effect with the maintenance period that began that day. Among those alterations was a reduction in the reserve requirement imposed upon what are officially called “eurocurrency liabilities.” Under the Monetary Control Act of 1980, which made reserve requirements universal to any US chartered federally insured depositories and all its qualified [...]
The worst part of this stilted or stunted economy is that it isn’t nearly good enough to produce widespread prosperity (with very real questions as to whether it produces any prosperity at all). It has become self-reinforcing, however, to the point of circular logic. We (economists) are now so conditioned by the low, unstable growth that we are supposed to [...]
With no “unusual” snow or “residual seasonality”, the US economy once again grinds to a halt in Q1 only now with no more reasons to dismiss it. In what has become an annual ritual, GDP barely moves in the quarter immediately following the Christmas holiday. This time, however, it wasn’t just consumers holding back in Q1. The U.S. economy inched [...]
The front end of the oil price complex continues to get all the attention because it seems to further the more optimistic narrative. It is the back end, however, that is most significant. The nearer maturities of the futures curve reflect more the funding environment than the fundamental view of oil and the economy. The lack of continued liquidation has [...]
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