When US retail sales jumped in May on seasonal adjustments alone, economists and mainstream commentary lost all composure as they were certain that meant the “slump” was over and the dominant narrative would continue. The same occurred in Europe over a slight pickup in overall lending, not even in the household or business sectors, which was proclaimed as nothing but [...]
Where money markets seem to be regularly unsettled, credit markets are quite the opposite. Those two polar interpretations may, in fact, be quite related as credit markets are not really supposed to be so placid. Yet, here we find them again lacking much determination in any one direction. Inflation breakevens which were steadily rising from January 15 to May 6 [...]
In looking through the CBO’s litany of economic projections, past and present, I wrote yesterday that the major economic problem started to become clear by what was missing. The main orthodox models all view economic potential in much the same fashion, as if the economy exists completely upon a curve of inflation and employment, whereby the intersection of those two [...]
Last month’s retail sales report for May was taken as the definitive sign that the slump had passed and that the conventional view of the jobs market was finally, if surprisingly belatedly, taking shape. It did not matter to economists that the only basis for that interpretation was seasonal adjustments, which had produced a huge disparity with the unadjusted set. [...]
With a lull in Greek information and general craziness, as well as China essentially shutting down its stock exchange (no longer much as far as exchange) “dollar” pressure has abated. That is obvious in the treasury market which has seen a retracement in yields without collateral calls, but also somewhat in the related commodities. Copper prices are back up to [...]
There should be no more “ifs”, no more caveats and qualifications. After trillions of printed illusions through four QE’s and now almost seven years of ZIRP, she still can’t say for certain whether the economy is actually performing. However, the fact that Janet Yellen won’t say so is all the evidence you need, as for surely by now, especially given [...]
May must have been the month of sevens. First, exports declined by 7% year-over-year, as did imports. Now the Commerce Department reports wholesale sales within the US fell by 6.8%, which is good enough in close rounding to be yet another seven percent contraction. In the case of wholesale sales, while those estimates are likely coincidence at all around -7%, [...]
When the IMF released its semi-annual World Economic Outlook in April, it was still caught up in the GDP/Establishment Survey frenzy of late 2014. Despite the fact that Q1 GDP was certain to be negative by the time of publication, the IMF was wholly undeterred preferring instead to view the US as still the global engine and hope. They even [...]
The FOMC policy statement released last month wasn’t improved by the “minutes” publicized today. If you believe the committee is “hawkish” then there is plenty for you to find agreement; the opposing equally so. From what I see, they spend an inordinate amount of time and words on the labor market, but after repeated emphasis that instead of fashioning confidence [...]
If one were to measure the US economy by what it is, right now, there would be so little growth or activity as to question the actual cycle. In fact, about the only factor that seems to be out of recession is the expectation for the second half of the year (which is already trimmed from the “slump” sticking to [...]
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