Economic Indicators
WSJ: Americans are Getting Their Finances in Shape
Friday, March 9th, 2012From Today’s WSJ: U.S. households’ net worth—the value of homes, stocks and other investments minus debts and other liabilities—rose $1.2 trillion to $58.5 trillion from October through December, the first improvement in two quarters. The increase came as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied nearly 12%. A measure of households’ disposable personal income jumped, helping [...]
John Hussman on the Latest Employment Numbers
Monday, February 6th, 2012From John Hussman’s latest commentary: “…it’s useful to understand how the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated the 243,000 increase in employment that it reported for January. Total non-farm employment in the U.S., before seasonal adjustments, fell by 2,689,000 jobs in January. However, because it’s typical for the economy to lose a large number of jobs [...]
Unemployment Now at 8.3%
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Just saw a headline on WSJ.com about the latest unemployment figures. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 243,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday, marking the biggest gain since April. The jobless rate fell by two-tenths of a point to 8.3%, the lowest it has been since February 2009. Both figures contradicted expectations of a slowdown [...]
WSJ: How the Current Recovery Measures Up
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011There was an interesting article about the U.S. recovery in today’s WSJ. Included with the article was a section that showed several graphs comparing this recovery with recoveries of the past. Bottom line: this recovery stinks. I’ll sumarize the graphs for you: According to the article, the recovery began in June 2009, when the recession [...]