The Return Of The Great Depression

New York Fed Sees New Central Bank Role in Fighting Asset Bubbles

Carlton Smith — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:10:56 +0000

Speaking today at the New York Economic Club in New York City, New York Federal Reserve President William C. Dudley shared his opinion that central banks should take a more active role in fighting asset bubbles...more

ADP National Jobs Report for March 2010

Carlton Smith — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:41:17 +0000

ADP released its National Jobs Report for March 2010 this morning, noting that the continued decline in jobs was "the smallest decline since employment began falling in February of 2008." This report also included revised numbers for February 2010. These revisions were down in all sectors except Service....more

February Flat for Income and Outlays

Carlton Smith — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:48:17 +0000

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its report for February 2010 Personal Income and Outlays showing very small to no gains from January....more

Unemployment and GDP

Carlton Smith — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:55:38 +0000

Gross Domestic Product and unemployment are two economic indicators that are reported frequently and thought to be closely related. One attempts to measure everything that is produced in an economy and the other attempts to measure the amount of the labor force that is currently out of work. I have charted out the numbers for both figures since 1990. First, we will look at Gross Domestic Product....more

4 Week Treasury Bills

Carlton Smith — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:35:30 +0000

$34 billion dollars in 4 Week Treasury Bills were auctioned off today as the discount rate edged up slightly, but remained near zero...more

Housing Market Index

Carlton Smith — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:06:11 +0000

The National Association of Home Builders released their housing index report for March, on Monday, showing a decline of 2 points, back under it's level from May of last year. The worst news came in a drop in traffic to below its levels from last March...more

Industrial Production Report

Carlton Smith — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:17:03 +0000

The Federal Reserve release the Industrial Production report yesterday, showing a slight overall increase in production. The report is based on the 2002 industrial output average and the numbers are stated as a percentage of that average ...more

Treasury Budget Report

Carlton Smith — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:51:55 +0000

The Congressional Budget Office released its budget report for February 2010 this past week, reporting a $655 billion deficit for the first five months of the fiscal year. The report states that outlays remained essentially unchanged from the year before, but the deficit was $65 billion more because of a 7% decrease in revenues...more

Government Debt at All Levels

Carlton Smith — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:16:38 +0000

Last week I posted a piece regarding the dramatic rise in national debt. Alarming enough on its own, the national debt statistics only show part of the picture of government debt in the United States. Though the aggregated states and municipalities have not taken on as much debt as the national government, the numbers are still significant. Every state in the union currently carries a negative debt balance, but some are far worse than others.

When measured per capita, the states carrying the highest debt are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey and New York, holding between $2,000 and $5,000 of debt ...more

Employment Situation Report

Carlton Smith — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:52:58 +0000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the February 2010 Employment Situation Report today, showing the employment situation in the U.S. is largely unchanged since January...more