America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk blog post of December 10, 2015 titled “Fed’s Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth Declined in Q3.” It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from the Federal Reserve’s Z.1 report, “Financial Accounts of the United States“: (click on chart to enlarge image) As seen …
I have written many blog posts concerning the worrisome trends in income and earnings. Doug Short, in his December 4, 2015 post titled “October Median Household Income at a New Post-Recession High” produced the chart below. It is based upon data from Sentier Research, and it shows both nominal and real median household incomes since 2000, …
I have written many blog posts concerning the worrisome trends in income and earnings. Along these lines, one of the measures showing disconcerting trends is that of hourly earnings. While the concept of hourly earnings can be defined and measured in a variety of ways, below are a few charts that I believe broadly illustrate problematic …
On December 1, 2015 Gallup released the poll results titled “U.S. Monthly Economic Confidence Remains Level in November.” Notable excerpts include: Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index averaged -13 in November, similar to the monthly averages since July. This is down noticeably from +3 in January, the highest monthly average Gallup has found since 2008, and in …
Doug Short had a blog post of November 25, 2015 (“Michigan Consumer Sentiment: November Final Survey Drops from Preliminary“) in which he presents the latest Conference Board Consumer Confidence and Thomson/Reuters University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index charts. They are presented below: (click on charts to enlarge images) – – There are a few aspects of the …
Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as a prominent economic indicator and/or leading economic indicator. For reference, below are charts depicting this measure. First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through October, updated on November 25, 2015. This value is $238,976 ($ Millions): (click on charts to enlarge images) …
For reference purposes, below are two sets of charts depicting growth in the money supply. The first shows the MZM (Money Zero Maturity), defined in FRED as the following: M2 less small-denomination time deposits plus institutional money funds. Money Zero Maturity is calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Here is the “MZM …
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) and the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index (ADS Index) are two broad-based economic indicators that I regularly feature in this site. The short-term and long-term trends of each continue to be notable. Doug Short, in his blog post of November 19, 2015, titled “The Philly Fed ADS Index Business …
I found various notable items in Walmart’s Q3 2016 management call transcript (pdf) dated November 17, 2015. (as well, there is Walmart’s press release of the Q3 results(pdf)) I view Walmart’s results and comments as particularly noteworthy given their retail prominence and focus on low prices. I have previously commented on their quarterly management call comments; these previous posts are found under …
I have written many blog posts concerning the worrisome trends in income and earnings. Along these lines, one of the measures showing disconcerting trends is that of hourly earnings. While the concept of hourly earnings can be defined and measured in a variety of ways, below are a few charts that I believe broadly illustrate problematic …