Larry's Blog
U.S. Employment Growth During Different Presidencies
September 24, 2008
The United States has had nine presidents since 1961. Five were Republican and occupied the White House for 27.6 years. The four Democrats were president for a total of 20 years. The 7.6-year difference represents the presidency of George W. Bush, so for the forty years from January 1961 to January 2001, control of the […] More
Currency Markets in the News
German Business Sentiment Breaking Down
September 24, 2008
The prestigious IFO Economic Institute of Munich surveys firms each month for their assessment of whether business conditions are currently good or bad and whether such are likely to become more or less favorable during the next six months. In alarming language that I cannot recall for quite some time after today’s release of the […] More
Larry's Blog
Norges Bank Leaves Benchmark Interest Rate Unchanged at 5.75%
September 24, 2008
Norway’s central bank kept policy steady as expected, and dropped signaling the possibility of one more rate advance. There had been sixteen 25-basis point increases between June 2005 and June 25, 2008, lifting the rate from 1.75% to to 5.75%. The prior policy meeting on August 13th had still stressed rising and higher-than-desired inflation. Today’s […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
New Overnight Developments Abroad: European Business Confidence Swooned in September
September 24, 2008
The dollar is softer except against low-interest rate currencies like the yen and Swiss franc. The U.S. currency slid 0.5% against the Australian dollar, 0.4% versus the kiwi, 0.3% against sterling, 0.2% against the Canadian dollar and 0.1% versus the euro. It is up 0.5% against the yen and 0.3% against the Swissy. Equities mostly […] More
Larry's Blog
U.S. Consumer Price Inflation Under Different Presidencies
September 24, 2008
Consumer price inflation provided the biggest surprise to me when I compared five economic vital signs in the twenty years when the president was a Democrat between 1961 and 2000 to the other twenty years when the president was Republican. Inflation averaged 4.0% per annum in the first control group and 5.1% when a Republican […] More
