by sslifer | Apr 2, 2020 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
April 2, 2020 The trade deficit for February narrowed $5.5 billion to $39.9 billion after having narrowed by $3.1 billion in January. The $887 billion trade deficit in goods for 2018 was a record high level. It narrowed slightly to $866 billion in 2019. Increasing...
by sslifer | Mar 10, 2020 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
March 10, 2020 Small business optimism climbed 0.2 point in February to 104.5 after rising 1.6 points in January. The August 2018 level of 108.8 broke the previous record high level of 108.0 set 35 years ago back in July 1983. The current level of confidence is...
by sslifer | Dec 20, 2019 | Miscellaneous
December 20, 2019 Corporate profits before tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments fell 0.2% in the third quarter after having risen 3.8% in the second quarter. During the last year profits on this basis has declined 1.2%. The IVA and CC...
by sslifer | Dec 4, 2019 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
December 4, 2019 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...
by sslifer | Dec 4, 2019 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
December 4, 2019 Corporate cash holdings rose $226 billion in the third quarter to $3.00 trillion (above). At 11.1% they are significantly higher than their long-run average of 9.8% of non-financial assets (below). Stephen Slifer NumberNomics Charleston,...
by sslifer | Nov 1, 2019 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
November 1, 2019 The stock market continues to power its way upwards to a series of record high levels. Given that many economists worry about slower growth overseas particularly in China which is the world’s second largest economy, weakness in the U.S....
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