Obama
Geithner NYT Editorial Not a Game Changer
August 3, 2010
A defense of the Obama economic policy record by Treasury Secretary Geithner appears in today’s New York Times. The accomplishments mentioned are standard ones. They contain no fresh claims, and will do little to resurrect the administration’s popularity. Geithner writes that Nobody expected recovery from the great recession to be easy or quick. GDP has […] More
Few Thoughts on Today’s U.S. Jobs Numbers
July 2, 2010
A downshift in U.S. employment growth occurred longer ago than generally realized. Over the forty years from January 1949 until January 1989, jobs expanded at a 2.2% annualized rate. Among the last four presidencies, only Bill Clinton’s stewardship saw a faster rate of job creation, 2.4% per annum. Jobs went up 0.6% per annum when […] More
Conference Board Data Moves Markets
June 29, 2010
The global data calendar today was a heavy one. While including several key Japanese end-of month releases, euro area sentiment indices, and the Case-Shiller house price index for 20 metropolitan areas, two indicators compiled by the Conference Board stole the show. The CB has crunched a U.S. index of leading economic indicators for years, which […] More
Pause in the Dollar
March 12, 2010
Upward pressure on the dollar has lost steam. As of 16:00 GMT today, the U.S. currency was showing losses for the week of 1.3% against the Canadian dollar and Swiss franc, 0.9% against the euro and Australian dollar, 0.6% relative to the kiwi but only 0.2% versus sterling. Previous dollar strength had been mostly at […] More
