Archive: Economic and Financial Digest
April 16, 2019 | Economic and Financial Digest
Back to the Future: 2% Growth
As advertised, the brutal headwinds that buffeted the U.S. economy late last year are having knock-on effects in the early months of 2019. The economy’s performance in the closing quarter of 2018 did not look bad at all as GDP advanced by a respectable 2.6 percent annual rate, according to the government’s preliminary estimate That […]
March 12, 2019 | Economic and Financial Digest
Reduced Policy Risks Defuses Recession Threats
The economy skirted another landmine on February 15 when Congress passed, and President Trump signed, a package of spending bills that funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year which ends September 30. With the growth-impediment of another government shutdown out of the way, the economic expansion should remain on course to become […]
February 19, 2019 | Economic and Financial Digest
It’s Not Just Jobs
Thanks to the government shutdown it will be a while before the data calendar returns to normal. In the meantime, economists, policymakers and investors are flying partially blind. Yet through anecdotal reports, private surveys and hard data available from government agencies that remain open, including the Labor Department and the Federal Reserve, a sense of […]
January 24, 2019 | Economic and Financial Digest
Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble
There’s an old adage that Wall Street likes to climb a wall of worry. In the first quarter of 2019, that wall keeps getting higher, resulting in one of the most tumultuous market environments in years. The question is, will that wall come tumbling down or pose a formidable barrier for the economy to surmount […]
December 30, 2018 | Economic and Financial Digest
Gathering Headwinds
With the midterm elections behind us, the pollsters can breath a sigh of relief that the outcome was generally consistent with their predictions, unlike the embarrassing misses in the 2016 election. For the most part, economists can also pat themselves on their collective backs for correctly predicting the economy’s performance this year. Most saw a […]