Gas stations might want to think about offering direct deposit.
On Wednesday, the government announced the monthly number for retail spending and it included a disturbing figure for those of us who have been hoping for a strong recovery. Excluding gas purchases, consumers spent just 0.1% more in March than they did a month ago. That’s …
A government shut down could cause consumer spending to drop by just over $30 billion. It’s a lot of money. And certainly meaningful to the people who count on those checks. But the real question is this: Is that enough to derail the economic recovery, or at least delay it?
The spending hit has to do with tax refunds, which many …
Central banker see. Central Banker do? We will see.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank for the first time in nearly three years raised interest rates. Even though the rate is only going from 1% to 1.25%, it’s a significant move because the ECB becomes the first central bank among so-called wealthy nations to raise interest rates …
Costco. Victoria’s Secret. Wet Seal. Saks. Kohl’s. That’s as varied a group of stores you can get. Yet, all four giant retail chains reported that in March their sales were better than expected. Some of the chains’ sales were far better than expected.
For example, analysts had expected sales at Costco’s outlets open at least a year …
Wall Street and Washington haven’t been getting along for a while. So perhaps it isn’t a surprise that the stock market seems somewhere between indifferent and gleeful at the prospect of a possible government shutdown. Stocks are up today, even as the likelihood of a government shutdown seems to have climbed from no-way to …
Among the things the recent recovery may lack – jobs, for one – there is one thing we have in abundance: Inflation worries. And why not? Food prices are rising. Gas prices are rising. And many think the Federal Reserve’s efforts to boost the economy could lead to massive inflation. About six months ago, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck began …
More jobs plus a lower unemployment rate equals — more to worry about. Really?
On Friday, the government reported that the job market grew faster in March than it has in that month for more than 5 years. The number of employed people in the U.S. increased by 216,000. That was better than the 194,000 jobs the economy added in …
Small businesses are the economy’s great job creators. Or are they? Last year a group of economists digging through new Census data, including a relatively rare measure of firm age, concluded that it’s actually young companies, especially start-ups, that drive the effect normally attributed to small firms. At least that was the …
Last month, I asked in this space if the global recovery was becoming a sure thing. Some economists had started to become buoyant about the world’s economic prospects and boosted their growth projections, but I had a few doubts. There seemed to be too many risks hanging about out there to be fully comfortable that we had finally …
After a stress-inducing day on Wall Street, investors have finally woken to the potential dangers to the world economic order posed by the giant earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Japanese economy is the world’s third-largest, and its companies play important roles in everything from heavy industry to high-tech to finance. There is …
Worry has taken over world stock markets (Photo: Reuters)
The US stock market, it appears, won’t dodge the Japanese earthquake. Up until Tuesday, US investors had mostly shrugged off the horrific events in Asia. And now, it seems, no stock is safe. Not even the cute Aflac duck. Shares of Aflac stock were down 10%
Shares of US …
The Japanese earthquake has taken the chance that we will be paying $5.00 a gallon gas by summer down from a good to nearly zero. That’s not to say that the US will avoid an economic impact from the Japan quake. Investors all of a sudden do seem spooked about Japan. US stocks opened down 300 points on Tuesday. But the hit we take won’t …
