The Radford Free Press – Page 227 – All life is problem solving.

Weekly Summary / austerity, economic policy, economic theory, IMF, Keynes /

Weekend October 12, 2012

October 12, 2012

What a strange week. The paucity of hard economic news was punctuated by a quite remarkable mea culpa issued by the International Monetary Fund. Or rather the punctuation was provided by the chatter within the commentariat about the apparent regret the IMF has in arguing for austerity prior to the full recovery of sundry economies […]

Economics / consumer confidence, consumption, growth, Michigan -Thomson Reuters Index /

Confidence Up; Expectations the Key

October 12, 2012

Today’s news from the University of Michigan-Thomson Reuters index of consumer sentiment was surprisingly good. Surprising, that is, if we had not been paying attention to the details of other recent announcements. The jump in confidence to 83.1 at the beginning of October from September’s 78.3 fits neatly with the steady but largely hidden drumbeat […]

Economics / jobless claims, jobs, unemployment /

Brighter Outlook on Jobs?

October 11, 2012

In a week of little news about the state of the economy, today’s weekly report on new claims for unemployment assistance comes as a nice treat: jobless claims fell 30,000 to 339,000 the lowest level since February 2008. Coming as it does on the back of last week’s improved unemployment numbers we begin to talk […]