The number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits rose in the latest week, continuing its sharp upward trend that began during the first part of this new year. According to the US Department of Labor, for the week ending March 21st, initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 to stand at 652,000. That’s slightly off the highest levels seen since October 1982. [...]
Sales of new homes in the US rebounded off their lowest levels on record in February, after a lackluster January in which sales were initially down over 10%. Sales jumed by 4.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000 units, up from January’s initial estimate of 309,000, which was revised to 322,000 in today’s report. Despite the revision, January’s [...]
Orders for US-made durable goods spiked higher in February, following a dismal January in which we saw total orders revised lower to a negative 7.3%. According to the Commerce Department’s monthly M3 Report, February’s durable goods orders jumped 3.4%, mostly on increased demand for machinery and other capital goods. The gain is the biggest in more than a year [...]
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today unveiled his long awaited plan for relieving banks of their responsibility to own up to their past lending mistakes. He even wrote a nice Op-Ed for the WSJ to explain his plan. My comments appear in red below:
The American economy and much of the world now face extraordinary challenges, and [...]
