by sslifer | May 28, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 28, 2021 The labor market seems to be on a roll midway through the second quarter. Layoffs have fallen to the lowest level since the recession ended last April, which suggests that the modest increase in payroll employment and the 0.1% uptick in the unemployment...
by sslifer | May 21, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 21, 2021 The extreme shortage of available housing is causing home prices to soar. The housing market is seriously overheated. People are knocking on homeowners’ doors asking if they would be interested in selling. Some current homeowners are listing their...
by sslifer | May 14, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 14, 2021 In April inflation returned in spades and the markets did not like it. The stock market plunged. Consumer sentiment fell 5.5 points in May as consumers were shaken by the monthly jump in inflation. Some of the upswing reflects rebounding airfares,...
by sslifer | May 14, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 14, 2021 The grand arbiter of recession dating is the National Bureau of Economic Research. It determines the exact month that expansions and recessions get underway and end. On June 8 of last year it indicated that the decade long expansion ended in February...
by sslifer | May 7, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
May 7, 2021 Payroll employment rose 266 thousand in April which was far smaller than the 950 thousand increase that had been expected. Firms are struggling to find an adequate number of workers to satisfy the growing demand. To a large extent the shortfall can be...
by sslifer | Apr 30, 2021 | Commentary for the Week, NumberNomics Notes
April 30, 2021 At 6.4%, GDP growth in the first quarter was about in line with expectations. But three things were not anticipated. First, the demand side of the economy was turbocharged. Essentially, the government primed the pump with two rounds of checks to...
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