The Radford Free Press – Page 226 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / economic policy, fiscal cliff, GDP, growth, home prices, housing permits, housing starts, manufacturing, real estate /

Production and Construction Pick Up

October 17, 2012

The last couple of days have brought us more news to support the notion of a solid, if unspectacular, recovery being well underway. Both industrial production and, more particularly, new home construction support a slightly optimistic outlook by growing more rapidly than forecast. So they’re worth noting. Yesterday we learned that industrial production which had […]

Economics / consumer confidence, consumption, GDP, growth, retail sales /

Retail Sales Jump

October 15, 2012

One of our recent themes has been the underlying improvement in consumer confidence that has yet to manifest itself strongly in any of the headline numbers. There seems to have been a definitive change at the household level. Whether it has the strength to make a significant difference throughout the economy is yet to be […]

Economics / Federal Reserve Board, inflation, Keynes, monetary policy /

What Inflation?

October 12, 2012

I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along today’s news on inflation. There isn’t any. Nada. Well that’s the story at the wholesale level where prices rose at an annual rate of 1.1% in September on the backs of volatile gasoline prices. As we all know energy and food contribute a lot of noise to […]