Small Business Optimism

November 12, 2024 . Small business optimism rose points in October to 93.7 after having climbed 0.3 point in September.  The level is well below the 40-year average so-called breakeven point for this series which is 98.0. NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg said,...

Corporate Profits

August 29, 2024 Corporate profits from current production (corporate profits before tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) rose by $57.6 billion in the second quarter which works out to an annualized rate of increase of 7.0% after after...

Trade Deficit

August 6, 2024 The trade deficit narrowed by $1.9 billion in June to $73.1 billion after having widened by $0.5 billion in May  t it has been gradually widening since the beginning of the year in response to the stronger dollar. Exports rose $3.9 billion or 1.5% in...

Corporate Leverage

September 12, 2023 Economists like to keep an eye on the amount of leverage amongst corporations.  When corporations take on huge amounts of debt in relation to their net worth, any economic downturn will be much more severe than it would otherwise be as corporations...

Corporate Cash

September 12, 2023 Corporate cash holdings in the first half of 2020 as the government quarantine basically caused the economy to stop dead in its tracks.  Firms needed to raise money wherever they could to keep them going until such time as the virus eased its grip...

Trade-Weighted Dollar

June 9, 2022 The trade-weighted value of the dollar, which represents the value of the dollar against the currencies of a broad group of U.S. trading partners has risen 7.7% from where it was at this time last year and it is expected to continue to rise in value...