by sslifer | Oct 18, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
October 18, 2024 Fiscal year 2024 ended with a yawning budget gap of $1.9 trillion. Another $1.9 trillion was added to the already record amount of debt outstanding with much more to come. The baseline deficit projections from the Congressional Budget Office do not...
by sslifer | Oct 11, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
October 11, 2014 The Federal Reserve is pleased that inflation is closing in on its 2.0% target. But what exactly is inflation? It is the change in prices in the past twelve months. While prices in the past year have risen slowly, they skyrocketed in prior years. As a...
by sslifer | Oct 4, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
October 4, 2024 Every time economists conclude that the long-awaited slowdown is at hand they get slammed. This time it was by the strong employment report for September. Payroll employment for that month rose 254 thousand which was far bigger than even the most...
by sslifer | Sep 27, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
September 27, 2024 This past week we got the annual benchmark revisions to GDP and the income data. GDP growth did not change appreciably, but income growth for the past year doubled from what had been reported previously. That changes the outlook. Prior to the...
by sslifer | Sep 20, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
September 20, 2023 The financial press has been filled with analysis (and over analysis) of the Fed’s decision to the cut federal funds rate by 0.5% to 4.75-5.0%. Some economic experts suggest that the economy must be far weaker than the Fed is suggesting publicly to...
by sslifer | Sep 13, 2024 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
September 13, 2024 One of the mysteries of the current expansion has been the contrast between consumer confidence – which is terrible – and consumer spending – which is not. All of the various consumer confidence surveys are close to the low point reached in the...
Follow Me