Archive for January 30th, 2008
Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by Econbrowser
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today that U.S. real GDP grew at a 0.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2007, a weaker report than many of us had been expecting.
Consumption spending grew at a 2.0% annual rate during the fourth quarter, significantly weaker than the 3.2% growth that would have […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Check out the foreclosure map (click to enlarge), from RealtyTrac.
HT: FancyPlaid Pants.
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy braked sharply last autumn, pulling growth for all of 2007 to its lowest speed in five years as the housing slump took a heavy toll.
Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.6% annual rate October through December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in the first estimate […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Making mud cookies in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It was lunchtime in one of Haiti’s worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti’s poorest can’t afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Today’s first guess at fourth-quarter GDP revealed what everyone already knew: the economy slowed sharply in the last three months of 2007 to a 0.6% annual pace in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. That’s a world or two below the third quarter’s 4.9% surge.
What’s the source of […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
There are three ways government can get the money for a stimulus package. It can tax, borrow or inflate the currency by printing money. If government taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another who pays the tax, who is unstimulated and has less money to […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Political satirist P.J. O’Rourke says that the free market exists in the eyes of philosopher Adam Smith in order to decentralize our badness.
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From Henry Payne.
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by A Dash of Insight
In the current issue of Barron’s Mike Santoli has some special insight for those trying to interpret the many historical analogies making the rounds. He writes:
• Every time the U.S. unemployment rate has risen by at least 0.3% in a month, as it did in December, a recession has […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Amazing video.
Time Magazine article here.
Wikipedia listing here.
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
“Hillary, I’d like to expand government by at least this much.”
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm gave her “State of the State” address tonight, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy did the math:
Proposed Expansions of State Govenment: 24
Proposed Limitations of State Government: 4
Gov. Jennifer Granholm tonight surpassed the previous record for government expansions […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The Laffer Curve charts a relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. While the theory behind the Laffer Curve is widely accepted, the concept has become very controversial because politicians on both sides of the debate exaggerate. This video, featuring Cato Institute Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell, shows the middle ground between those […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to the Federal Reserve (via the St. Louis Fed), 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates fell below 5.5% last week for the first time in almost 4 years (see graph above), since early March 2004.
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From yesterday’s WSJ article by Brian Wesbury:
A year ago, most economic data looked much worse than they do today. New orders for durable goods fell 3.9% at an annual rate during the six months ending in November 2006 (see graph above, red circle). Real GDP grew just 0.6% in the first […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Last week there was a CD post featuring the graph above of initial claims for unemployment benefits, which was mentioned on Greg Mankiw’s blog.
Now a recently released study by labor economist Tim Kane for the Joint Economic Committe of Congress “Employment Numbers As Recession Indicators” reports (p. 12) that:
The most surprising […]
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Posted in January 30th, 2008
Submitted by Econbrowser
Decoupling seems ever more unlikely…
From the IMF:
Buffeted by recent financial market turbulence and a weakening U.S. performance, world growth is projected to slow to 4.1 percent in 2008, down from an estimated 4.9 percent last year, the IMF said in its quarterly update for the global economy.
Financial market strains originating in the […]
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