'Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero'
'Seize the day, Trusting as little as possible in the future'
04/25/24 06:30AM - The only way to address the primary driver of high shelter costs is to build more apartments and houses. High interest rates prevent that. It may seem counterintuitive to suggest that today’s high interest rates will fuel shelter inflation down …more…
04/25/24 12:01AM - Let's just call this what it is another gimmick for Congress to escape its own budget limits and avoid having a conversation about tradeoffs. This week, Congress moved closer to passing four separate bills with $95 billion in funding for …more…
04/23/24 03:21PM - Small businesses (under 500 employees) are the backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for nearly all U.S. businesses and almost half (45.9%) of U.S. private sector employees.1 Business formations (or legal births) are a helpful indicator of …more…
04/23/24 01:48PM - Costs are passed on to consumers. If you work for and invest in companies, you get hit three times. In his call for Congress to repeal the 2017 tax cuts and increase corporate tax rates, President Biden asked: “Are we going to continue with …more…
04/23/24 10:00AM - Can the Federal Reserve build a better mousetrap? Wall Street Journal columnist Joseph Sternberg hopes so. Sternberg rightly indicts the Fed for failing to predict and contain the worst inflation in 40 years. The problem is "the central bank's …more…
04/22/24 08:43PM - The US federal deficit reminds us of the 1958 science fiction horror classic, "The Blob." It stars none-other than Steve McQueen, in his first leading role. The blob is an amoeba-like alien creature that crashes to Earth from outer space and …more…
04/25/24 08:30AM - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2023, real GDP …more…
04/25/24 08:30AM - Nonmanufacturing activity in the region expanded overall this month, according to the firms responding to the April Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey. The indexes for general activity at the firm level, new orders, and sales/revenues were …more…
04/25/24 08:30AM - In the week ending April 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 207,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 212,000. The 4-week moving average was 213,250, a decrease of 1,250 from the …more…
04/24/24 08:30AM - New Orders New orders for manufactured durable goods in March, up two consecutive months, increased $7.3 billion or 2.6 percent to $283.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 0.7 percent February increase. …more…
04/24/24 07:00AM - Mortgage applications decreased 2.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 19, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure …more…
04/23/24 10:00AM - New Home Sales Sales of new single‐family houses in March 2024 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 693,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This …more…
04/23/24 10:00AM - Fifth District manufacturing activity remained slow in April, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite manufacturing index increased from −11 in March to −7 in April. Of its three …more…