Submitted by Econbrowser
Scott Irwin is the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois. He has been doing some fascinating research on the relation between spot and futures prices in agricultural markets that may shed some light on the role of speculation in recent commodity price movements. We are delighted that […]

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Submitted by EconWeekly
I just read about this. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 163,000 applications for H1-B visas through the April 7 deadline. Since that number exceeds the visa cap, the government will not consider any more applications this year (Source: USCIS, via the H1B data blog). 31,200 of those applications were for the […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

From the American Geological Institute(AGI):
The chart above shows the spot market price of crude oil per barrel (BBL) in US dollars and in euros from 2001 to today. The price of oil has grown faster relative to the dollar than to the
euro. Yet, a portion of the rise in oil prices […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
THE ECONOMIST–South Korean workers toil for over 45 hours every week on average, nearly seven hours longer than workers in any other OECD country. Americans put in 15% more hours on average than workers in the western (richer) bit of the European Union. Poorer Eastern Europeans work considerably longer. Flexible arrangements for […]

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Submitted by The Capital Spectator
For five months running, the annual pace of consumer price inflation has been running at 4%-plus, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in today’s CPI update. That hasn’t happened since 1991. (As of last month, CPI is up 4.0% for the past 12 months.)
Core CPI inflation (which excludes food and energy) […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

According to today’s Federal Reserve release, industrial production grew in March at annual rate of 1.6% compared to the same month last year. Industrial production growth in March was higher than expected, and suggests that the U.S. economy is not in recession (see chart above showing industrial production growth in the last […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Thanks to David Gartman of the Gartman Letter for the chart above, showing that we are currently passing the peak of adjustable mortgage resets, and “from this point onward the monthly figures actually become reasonable instead of burdensome.”
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Submitted by Businomics Blog
The newspapers are featuring dreadful stories about economic hardships.  Keep in mind when you read the news that at ANY time it’s possible to find people in hardship.  To know whether you are seeing a trend of just an unfortunate anecdote, you have to look at the data.  Today’s data is 1) […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
How should a well-fed American react when some of the world’s poorest citizens in Haiti and Bangladesh riot over the rising price of food?

To be sure, there are many factors influencing food prices. But to me it’s natural to begin with the element that represents a deliberate policy choice on the part of […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned in 35 years of consumer reporting: The market performs miracles so routinely that we take it for granted. Supermarkets provide 30,000 choices at rock-bottom prices. We take it for granted that when we stick a piece of plastic in a wall, cash will come out; that […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From the CIA, ranked by country, from #1 China with a $363.3 billion surplus, to #164 U.S. with a -$747.1 billion deficit.
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Submitted by A Dash of Insight
Bloomberg writers Neil Unmack and Sarah Mulholland do a nice survey of viewpoints (Swaps Tied to Losses Became `Frankenstein’s Monster’) on the problems in relating credit default swaps, indexes and cash markets.
A telling quotation comes from Kevin Gould, the head of data products and analytics at Markit, the source of […]

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