by sslifer | May 22, 2020 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 22, 2020 Modern monetary theory has moved to center stage in the debate about the proper role of monetary policy. Whether you are a strident believer or a ferocious detractor depends largely upon your political persuasion. The left-wing of the Democratic Party...
by sslifer | May 21, 2020 | Housing, NumberNomics Notes
May 21, 2020 Existing home sales fell 17.8% in April to 4,330 thousand after having declined 8.5% in March It is likely that home sales will continue to decline in May. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said that “The economic lock-downs – occurring from mid-March...
by sslifer | May 21, 2020 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes
May 21, 2020 Initial unemployment claims for the week of May 16 fell 249 thousand to 2,438 thousand. Unfortunately, that is still a very large number of people. In the past 9 weeks 38.6 million Americans have lost their jobs. Clearly, the measures put into place...
by sslifer | May 20, 2020 | Inflation, NumberNomics Notes
May 20, 2020 Gasoline prices at the retail level rose $0.03 in the week ending May 18 to $1.88 per gallon. After hitting bottom at $1.77 in the week of April 27, this is the third consecutive weekly increase in gas prices. In South Carolina gasoline prices tend to...
by sslifer | May 19, 2020 | Housing, NumberNomics Notes
May 19, 2020 Housing starts .plunged 30.2% in April to 891 thousand after having fallen 18.6% in March, Because these data are particularly volatile on a month-to-month basis, it is best to look at a 3-month moving average of starts (which is the series shown...
by sslifer | May 18, 2020 | Housing, NumberNomics Notes
May 18, 2020 Homebuilder confidence rebounded by 7 points in May to 37 after having plunged by 42 points in April which was the biggest single-month decline in the history of this series.. NAHB Chairman Dean Mon said that, “The fact that most states classified housing...
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