The pills that I thought were tranquilizers turned out to be vitamins, and although I am on the verge of some kind of mental breakdown because of the mix-up, I feel great!
Turning to the old tried and true, I soon learned that I had started too late, and I was not nearly drunk enough to [...]

Two key reports this week continue to indicate that the manufacturing sector continues its strong rebound from a year ago.
On Tuesday, the Empire State general business conditions index jumped nearly 9 points to 24.91 — a reading that indicates substantial month-to-month acceleration in the region’s manufacturing conditions. New orders, at a level of 8.78, and [...]

GDP releases are, by nature, lagging indicators and thus do not say a whole lot on the current momentum in the economy. Moreover, the immediate attention span when it comes to the Eurozone remains, and rightly so, focused on the situation in Greece (and Spain) and what plan exactly that is to emerge from the [...]

Paul De Grauwe published a very good article (link), discussing the macroeconomic origins of the current debt crisis in Greece.
“The period 1999-2009 has been organised in periods of booms and busts: the boom years were 1999-2001 and 2005-07; the bust years were 2002-04 and 2008-09.
One observes a number of remarkable patterns.

First, private debt increases much [...]

The good folks at Icfai University Press and specifically the editor of the magazine The Analyst have queried me to answer some question on the Asian economies and their ascend to the top position (or not) of the global economy and what this means. They have shipped me some questions, given me a deadline and [...]

You may recall our optimistic prediction in November that the positive trending in the labor market pointed to net jobs growth by Christmas. Revised government numbers on Friday bolstered that assertion.
Further it is now clear that for job seekers in 2010, the economy will likely be their friend. With a 5.7% GDP growth in [...]

In NY Times, Paul Krugman (link) wrote about the comparison of European and U.S economic model, concluding that in the last 10 years, the European model of social democracy led to higher standard of living and, compared to U.S in output per hour and standard of living, and relative convergence of European countries relative to [...]

To round out the first month of 2010, reports this past week all painted positive business signs for the year to come.
As we’ve been predicting for quite some time, GDP for Q4 was anything but lackluster. The gross domestic product rose at a 5.7% annual pace, the Commerce Department reported Friday, up from a 2.2% [...]

You may remember us pointing to China’s rebounding manufacturing sector last quarter. Well, the country’s overall economic growth continues to accelerate and drive a global economic rebound.
On Thursday China announced that its gross domestic product in the fourth quarter 2009 grew by 10.7% year-over-year — thats up from a revised growth rate of 9.1% [...]

As you know, U.S. retail spending drives nearly three quarters of the U.S. GDP. A close look at retail trending shows a rebound that was good news for holiday retailers. They went into this year’s season with much better control over their inventories and a more calculated approach to their operations than in the later [...]