Weekly Economic Update: May 20-24, 2013
Existing home sales rose 0.6% in April to an annual pace of 4.97 million units. New home sales were up 2.3% in April to an annual pace of 454,000 units. Durable orders increased 3.3% in April. Initial jobless claims fell 23,000 to 340,000 for the week ended 5/18.
Weekly Economic Update: May 13-17, 2013
Retail sales increased 0.1% in April. Business inventories remained unchanged in March. The topline PPI fell 0.7% in April as the core rose 0.1%. Industrial production fell 0.5% in April. The topline CPI fell 0.4% in April as the core rose 0.1%. Housing starts fell 16.5% in April to an annual pace o...
Jobs Gap Average per Month
Weekly Economic Update: May 6-10, 2013
Consumer credit increased $8.0 billion to $2.807 trillion in March. The U.S. Treasury reported a $112.9 billion monthly net surplus in April. Initial jobless claims fell 4,000 to 323,000 for the week ended 5/4.
Jobs Report Better than Expected, Jobs Gap Still Remains Above 4 Million
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the economy added 165,000 payroll jobs during the month of April with the private sector adding 176,000 payroll jobs. This was slightly above expectations of private forecasters. BLS also reported that the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.5%. The ...
Weekly Economic Update: April 22-26, 2013
Existing home sales declined 0.6% to an annual pace of 4.92 million units in March. New home sales rose 1.5% to an annual pace of 417,000 units in March. GDP growth for the 1st quarter of 2013 came in at a lower than expected annual rate of 2.5%. Durable goods orders declined 5.7% in March. Initial ...
A Disappointing GDP Report: Underlying Weakness a Concern
Since the end of the “Great Recession” in the 2nd-quarter 2009 real GDP has grown by a total of 8.3% or at an annualized rate of 2.1%. The current recovery continues to rank as the weakest post-World War II recovery in terms of real economic growth.
Weekly Economic Update: April 15-19, 2013
Housing starts jumped 7.0% to an annualized level of 1.036 million units in March. Building permits fell 3.9% to an annualized level of 902,000 units in March. The topline consumer price index fell 0.2% in March. Industrial production rose 0.4% in March. Initial jobless claims rose 4,000 to 352,000 ...
Weekly Economic Update: April 8-12, 2013
The U.S. Treasury budget reported a deficit of $106.5 billion in March. The topline producer price index fell 0.6% in March. Retail sales fell 0.4% in March. Initial jobless claims fell 42,000 to 346,000 for the week ended 4/6.
How Tax Distribution Tables Mislead
As policymakers in Washington move forward on tax reform, demonstrating the effects that proposed changes in tax policy may have on individual taxpayers is tricky and always less than comprehensive. At best, tax distribution tables are incomplete because they lack a full description of their analyti...
