Economist Blog

MIXED MESSAGES

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:05:21 +0000

Submitted by The Capital Spectator The recession officially began this past January, NBER tells us. With that out of the way, we can now focus on the burning question: When will it end? There are many clues for pondering the timing of the business cycle. Calling the turning point in advance is never easy, and in fact [...]

Premium Gas Prices: U.S. vs. Netherlands

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:01:37 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM The chart above shows retail premium gas prices in Netherlands and the U.S., using weekly EIA data back to 1996. When retail prices topped $4 per gallon in the U.S. last summer, prices in the Netherlands were above $10 per gallon. And as bad as it got here with $4 gas [...]

Application for the Federal Bailout Program

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:59:26 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Click to enlarge. HT: Newmark’s Door via Club for Growth Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Markets in Everything: Advertising on Exams

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:56:27 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM Link. HT: Clover Aguayo Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

What Do AK, OK and WV Have in Common?

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:18:00 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM The BLS released metropolitan area unemployment rates today for October 2008, and the report shows that the economies of three states (Arkansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia) actually improved from October 2007 to October 2008, despite the recession that started in December of 2007 (see chart above). Moreover, five out of six [...]

New First: MSFT Market Share Falls Below 90%

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:16:43 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM PC ADVISOR — Microsoft’s share of the operating system market dipped below 90% for the first time during November with Windows accounting for 89.6% of computers accessing the web, according to Net Applications. The research firm, which monitors 40,000 websites to establish market share and trends, said the figure marked a 0.84% [...]

Harvesting Cash: Even Foreigners in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong Get US Farm Subsidies

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:15:28 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM WASHINGTON — A sports-team owner, a financial-firm executive and residents of Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia were among 2,702 millionaire recipients of farm payments from 2003 to 2006 — and it’s not even clear they were legitimate farmers, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Monday. According to the report, the 2,702 recipients exceeded [...]

Recession Dating: Some People Are Going to Be Surprised

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:59:22 +0000

Submitted by Econbrowser The typical Econbrowser reader might not be surprised at the NBER decision — but some others will. From a May 2008 WSJ article: “The data are pretty clear that we are not in a recession,” Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear told a meeting of editors and reporters from the Wall Street Journal [...]

Podcast on the Federal Reserve

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:57:17 +0000

Submitted by Econbrowser I did a long interview today with Tom Keene of Bloomberg Radio on the current recession and Federal Reserve policy. You can listen to it by clicking here. Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Thomas Sowell on “Community Service”: Forcing Students To Undergo a Propoganda Experience

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:55:36 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM There are high schools across the country from which you cannot graduate, and colleges where your application for admission will not be accepted, unless you have engaged in activities arbitrarily defined as “community service.” The arrogance of commandeering young people’s time, instead of leaving them and their parents free to decide for [...]

Real Oil Prices Fall to Lowest Level Since May 2005; Capital Spending on Well, Refineries Slashed

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:26:01 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM AP — By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was down 71 cents to $48.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, prices briefly fell to $47.36, the lowest since 2005. Business Week — When oil prices surged over the last two [...]

Cancel The Party, We’re Now in Recession

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:44:48 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM From yesterday: We’re very likely in a recession now, but since it hasn’t yet been officially announced by the NBER, let me wish the current U.S. economic expansion a “Happy Seventh Birthday”! According to the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, “a trough in business activity occurred in [...]

Natural Gas Prices Have Dropped -56% from Peak

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:43:21 +0000

Submitted by CARPE DIEM It’s not just gasoline (-56%) and oil prices (-66%) that have plunged since the July peak (see top chart above), but natural gas prices have dropped as well, with futures contract prices falling -56% from the July peak and more than -20% since the first of the year (EIA data here). [...]

Natural Gas Prices Have Dropped -56% from Peak

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:43:14 +0000

Officially a Recession, and Why Did It Take So Long to Determine?

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:41:46 +0000

Submitted by Businomics Blog Welcome back from your long holiday weekend. We’re in recession. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-profit foundation, announced that the last economic expansion peaked in December 2007. Read the full report. I’ve been asked frequently why it takes so long for an official determination. Here’s the [...]