Category: US Economy
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, December 07, 2018
This Is the End of Trump’s Economic Sugar High / Economics / US Economy
By: Patrick_Watson
By most measures, the US economy is performing okay. GDP growth is still near 3.5%. Unemployment is below 4%. Inflation is up a bit but still historically low.Yes, the data has flaws. There’s plenty of regional variation. Your mileage may vary. But conditions could be a lot worse.
The problem: Sometimes the economy weakens beneath the surface.
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
BEA Leaves US 3rd Quarter 2018 GDP Unchanged at 3.50% / Economics / US Economy
By: CMI
In their second estimate of the US GDP for the third quarter of 2018, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the US economy was growing at a +3.50% annual rate, up +0.01% from their previous estimate but still down -0.66% from the prior quarter. The +0.01% improvement in the headline number masks a troublesome shift in the composition of that growth from consumer spending to even more inventory growth. The headline contribution from consumer spending on goods and services weakened by -0.24% and the growth is now lower than the prior quarter. Offsetting that was an upward revision to inventories (+0.20%), which are now reported to be growing at a +2.27% annualized rate. As a consequence, the BEA's "bottom line" measurement of the economy (the "real final sales of domestic product") was revised downward by -0.19%, now dropping by over four percent (-4.10%) from the prior quarter.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2018
The Branded US Economy / Economics / US Economy
By: Peter_Schiff
Last week Donald Trump, in his own estimation, succeeded in replacing what he claimed to be the "worst trade deal in history" with what he claims was "the best trade deal in history." If true, this would not only make good on one of his central campaign promises, but it would be a genuinely significant development. In reality, the unveiling of the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal is just the latest iteration of the President's talent for branding. As is the case in other aspects of the president's view of economic matters, the difference between then and now is almost purely semantic.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Economic Expansion - Nine Years. Is That Enough? / Economics / US Economy
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
Nine years. Is it short or long? It depends on what we are talking about. In the geological time scale, it’s a blink of an eye. But in the business cycle time scale, nine years is a really long time. The current economic expansion has recently turned 9 years old, as the Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the NBER. With 109 months of economic prosperity (as of July 2018), the current cycle is now the second longest in the U.S. history (and data traces back to the 1850s), overshadowed only by the expansion which occurred between March 1991 and March 2001.
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Monday, April 23, 2018
US Economy Is Cooked, the Growth Cycle has Peaked / Economics / US Economy
By: Adam_Taggart
Hours ago, European Central Bank chief Mario Dragho conceded: "The growth cycle may have peaked"
Of course, those paying attention to the data already knew this. Our politicians and central planers have been peddling to us the fantasy that the global economy is strengthening, finally ready to fire on all cylinders after nearly ten years of dependence on monetary stimulus.
That just ain't so.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Critical US Economic Indication to Watch Out For / Economics / US Economy
By: Rodney_Johnson
Millennials get a bad rap. Sure, they’re the generation that grew up with participation trophies, winning prizes for completing the arduous task of showing up. And with help from their Boomer professors, they have successfully shamed institutions of higher learning, where for centuries debate was considered a search for the truth, into echo chambers of conformity.I’ve also just learned that this generation has promoted E-sports (that would be watching other people play video games) into such a big deal that the category will get its own E-sports arena in Arlington, Texas.
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Saturday, March 03, 2018
Maybe The Economy Is Too Good For Investors / Economics / US Economy
By: WMA
In the early 19th century, London financier Nathan Rothschild said “buy on the sound of cannons, sell on the trumpets”. The cannons referred to the start of war (valuations are therefore attractive as disorder begins) and the trumpets refer to the peace treaty ending the conflict (at which time timid investors pile back into risky financial assets). Warren Buffet has often reiterated the same idea first enounced by Rothschild saying “buy when there is blood in the streets” (eg, when valuations are very low).
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
US Goldilocks Economy is DEAD! / Economics / US Economy
By: James_Quinn
“Once you strip out the effects of the debt binge, the artificial stimulus via currency depreciation, and the fabled ‘wealth effect’ from the equity market runup, real GDP growth stripped-down to its core was the grand total of 0.7% last year. Potemkin would be proud.” – David Rosenberg
appears every president finds the religion of false economic narrative once they ascend to power. Trump never stops babbling and tweeting about the fantastic economy and raging jobs market since his election. He has embraced the stock market bubble as proof of his brilliant leadership, rather than the tens of trillions in debt propping up the most overvalued market in world history. Every president takes credit for any good news, spins bad news as good news, or blames the previous president for bad news that can’t be denied. The president has absolutely zero impact on the economy or stock market over the short term. It’s like taking credit for the sun rising in the east each morning.
The Big Lie method works wonders when you have a willfully ignorant, mathematically challenged, easily manipulated populace. I spent the entire Obama presidency obliterating the fake economic data perpetuated by his BLS, BEA and every other government agency trying to paint a rosy economic picture. I voted for Trump because the thought of Crooked Hillary as the president made me ill. Despite disagreeing with many of his economic, budgetary, and military policies during his first year in office, I’d vote for him again over Hillary in an instant. The thought of having that evil shrew running the country gives me chills.
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Monday, January 15, 2018
The Key Economic Indicator You Should Watch in 2018 / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : I think this year’s top risk is a miscalculation by the Federal Reserve—specifically, that it will tighten monetary policy too much.
The Fed is hiking interest rates because its experts believe the economy is close to “full employment.” And the Phillips Curve says wages should start rising any minute now.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Never Mind Tea Leaves, Here’s a Strong Signal from the Economic Dashboard / Economics / US Economy
By: F_F_Wiley
We’ve been seeing more and more commentaries discussing bad stuff that can happen when the Fed tightens policy and, as a result, the yield curve flattens. (See, for example, this piece from Citi Research and ZeroHedge.) No doubt, the Fed’s rate hikes will lead to mishaps as they usually do—in both markets and the economy. But most forecasters expect the economy to expand through next year, believing that the Fed and the yield curve aren’t yet restrictive enough to trigger a recession.
Monday, November 27, 2017
8 Charts That Show How Insane the Economy Is Today / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
Since the 2008 financial crisis, there’s been a growing number of ridiculous, inane, and otherwise nonsensical economic interventions from our central bankers that fill the daily economic headlines.
I have gone from the occasional smile to scratching my head now and then to "WTF" moments.
All that said, the economists who designed these interventions had their reasons. They thought lower interest rates and liquidity injections would create jobs, spur investment, and eventually produce inflation.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
Here’s the US’s Biggest Vulnerability in NAFTA Negotiations / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND ALLISON FEDIRKA : As the fourth round of NAFTA negotiations comes to an end, the agreement's survival has once again been brought into question.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike a new deal with just Canada. Mexico downplayed the threat, saying it would walk away from negotiations if the new terms brought by the US put it at a disadvantage. For their part, the Canadians have been quiet.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Harvey Will Reflect in Economic Data as Growth—That Might Mislead the Fed into Another Policy Error / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on South Texas and Louisiana. As a lifelong Texan, I have many friends in that region. They’ve lived through many storms and normally take what nature throws at them in stride.
Not this time.
I am seeing headlines calling this a thousand-year flood. It seems that over 100,000 homes in Houston alone were flooded. Harvey meant business. Recovering from this storm will take a long time and a lot of resources.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017
US GDP Growth Upwards Revision to 3.04%, BEA 2nd Quarter 2017 / Economics / US Economy
By: CMI
In their second estimate of the US GDP for the second quarter of 2017, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the US economy was growing at a +3.04% annual rate, up +0.48% from their previous estimate and up +1.80% from the prior quarter.
Consumer spending was revised upward to a +2.27% annualized growth rate (up +0.34% from the previous estimate and up +0.95% from the prior quarter). The inventory contribution continued to be essentially neutral (+0.02), while the previous growth in commercial fixed investment was revised upward (to +0.58%). Governmental spending was revised back into contraction (-0.05%), and the growth rates for both exports (+0.45%) and imports (-0.23%) moderated.
Monday, August 21, 2017
The Coming Boom Of Productivity Will Get Our Economy Back On Track / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
My good friend Gary Shilling draws some crucial distinctions with respect to wage and jobs and explains why our perplexing US labor market is actually quite rational.
Gary and I share a fundamental optimism regarding our prospects for long-term economic growth, and in this report, he tells us why.
This kind of in-depth dissection of macro trends is what Gary is known for. So without further ado, I’ll let him take it from here.
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Friday, July 28, 2017
BEA US Economy Q2 2017 Estimates GDP Growth At 2.56% / Economics / US Economy
By: CMI
In their first (preliminary) estimate of the US GDP for the second quarter of 2017, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the US economy was growing at a +2.56% annual rate, up +1.14% from a downward revised first quarter.
Consumer spending rebounded, growing at a +1.93% annualized rate during the quarter, up +1.18% from the prior quarter and very similar to the fourth quarter of 2016. The inventory contraction of the prior quarter essentially disappeared (-0.02%), as did the previous robust growth in commercial fixed investment (at only +0.36%). Governmental spending rose slightly (+0.12%), reversing the prior quarter's contraction, and the growth rates for both exports (+0.48%) and imports (-0.31%) moderated.
Monday, July 03, 2017
4 Obvious Signs the US Economy Is Stalling—Here’s What to Do / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY STEPHEN MCBRIDE : Despite a surge in optimism after the election, nominal GDP growth in 2016 was just 2.95%. This makes 2016 the second-worst year on record since 1959.
And with key economic indicators flashing warnings signs, it looks like the US economy is heading toward big trouble rather than revival.
Here are four signs that paint the picture best.
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017
The Fed Has Undermined the US Economy’s Ability to Grow / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY STEPHEN MCBRIDE : The Fed’s hope was that quantitative easing would stimulate economic growth. But a former senior economist for the Fed believes it has done the exact opposite.
Speaking at the Mauldin Economics Strategic Investment Conference, Dr. Lacy Hunt, the executive vice president of Hosington Investment Management and former senior economist for the Dallas Fed, said that quantitative easing has created “significant unintended consequences.”
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Saturday, June 24, 2017
Proof That This Economic Recovery Narrative is False / Economics / US Economy
By: Sol_Palha
A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it. Bertrand Russell
The financial media has provided reams of data trying to lay out the case that this economic recovery is real. Many of the statistics provided do indeed support the theme that the outlook is improving. One must, however, keep these two facts in mind when looking at the data:
- The Fed poured huge amounts of money into this market. Minus the money, this so-called economic recovery would have never come to pass
- Due to the low-interest rate environment, corporation borrowed money on the cheap and poured billions into share buybacks since the crash of 2009.
Friday, June 02, 2017
The Silent Economic Boom / Economics / US Economy
By: Clif_Droke
[Note: I was recently interviewed by Kenneth Ameduri who hosts the Crush The Street internet show. In it I discuss my take on gold, stocks, Trump, the economy and Bitcoin. The interview can be found here: https://crushthestreet.com/videos/live-interviews/economic-bubble-burst-trumps-watch-clif-droke-interview]Though many Americans aren’t feeling it, the economy is quietly gathering forward momentum. With consumers gaining in confidence and real estate heating up on both the commercial and residential levels, the U.S. economy is much stronger than it may seem at first glance.