Construction Spending

October 1 2024             Construction spending (the green bars above) declined 0.1% in August after having fallen 0.5% in July and 1.1% in June.  Construction spending climbed sharply in the first four months of this year, but it has...

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...

Fed Funds Rate

May 10, 2024 . The federal funds rate is the overnight rate that banks charge each other to borrow/lend  reserves.  Some banks have more reserves than they need.  Others (principally large banks) are short of reserves and must borrow from other banks in the system,...

Consumer Net Worth

April 4, 2024 .Consumer net worth jumped 12.8% in the fourth quarter of last year. after declining 3.7% in the third quarter  Over the past year consumer net worth has increased 8.0%. The growth in net worth reflects both the steady increase in stock prices during the...

Consumer Debt Service Ratio

April 4, 2024 Consumers debt service payments relative to income rose somewhat in the fourth quarter to 9.8%,  .Consumer debt in relation to income is slightly higher than it was a couple of quarters ago as the result of a rapid increase in credit card debt.  But the...