Economy

Italy’s coalition government came to power in May partly by winning an economic argument: The tight-budget “austerity” policies promoted by the European Union in the wake of the financial crises that began a decade ago were a sucker’s game, at least for slow-moving economies like Italy’s. Now the…

It’s hard for Republicans to talk about the economy when Trump’s talking about everything else. They should try anyway.

Plus, why you should always read the story.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Congress has the power to do so.

As new economic indicators attest to the economy’s strength, Democrats continue to insist that last year’s tax law is a big failure.

How much will the economy matter to voters in November?

Republicans are just over six months away from the 2018 midterm elections, and there's plenty to worry about. Midterms almost always favor the party out of power, and Democratic voters are far more enthused about the coming elections than their Republican correlatives. And although one should never…

Is the Labor Department scheming to take away restaurant servers' tips? That's the message some labor advocates are sending in response to a proposed rule-making by the Trump administration that would permit kitchen staff in certain states to receive a portion of servers' tips.

President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union, in what would be an economic counter-strike to Europe’s expected response to impending steel tariffs.

Like any savvy investor, I am always on the lookout for signs that the economy may be overheating, that things may be getting a bit frothy. Of particular concern are exotic businesses that pop up at the very end of economic booms, selling products or services that will be the first items struck off…

Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Monday afternoon that she will vote for the final version of the Republican tax bill, likely guaranteeing that it will pass the upper chamber this week.

The Tax Foundation on Monday said the final GOP tax bill would increase the national debt by $448 billion over the next decade, far less than the estimated $1.5 trillion in lost tax revenues under the bill.

Had enough of theoretical arguments about free trade—of complaints by establishment Republicans and the business community that President Trump is leading us from the glorious era of free trade into a recession induced by his protectionist policies? Well here’s a tangible example that should help…

In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…

In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…

We’re suffering a period of remarkably low labor-force participation. The national unemployment rate was only 4.4 percent in August, but just 62.9 percent of the U.S. population is working or looking for work. Ten years ago, before the recession, the number was 65.8 percent. There are around 7…

If you think monetary policy is getting boring, think again. True, Fed chair Janet Yellen had no surprises for us earlier this week. To contain the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed printed more than one trillion new dollars to finance its purchase of the assets that it now plans to sell. That took…

We’re suffering a period of remarkably low labor-force participation. The national unemployment rate was only 4.4 percent in August, but just 62.9 percent of the U.S. population is working or looking for work. Ten years ago, before the recession, the number was 65.8 percent. There are around 7…

A Republican-aligned opposition research group is set to accuse Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray of violating the Hatch Act by positioning himself for a run for governor of Ohio while in office.

Who says that President Trump refuses to accept responsibility for anything? Just last week he bravely accepted responsibility for the soaring stock market and the good news emerging about the American economy, which grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, more than double the first-quarter anemic…

If you wonder what is supposed to happen when the demand for labor outruns the available supply, take a look at the picture below. It’s a Starbucks plea for baristas—the usually young people who make your latte, americano, or coconut milk mocha macchiato every morning. True, this particular branch…

It’s often said that reforming the U.S. health care system amounts to reshaping one-fifth of the economy. It’d follow, then, that voters would hold the GOP’s grotesquely unpopular health bills against its reputation on economic issues. But historic polling shows that the public doesn’t relate the…

The latest Conversation with Bill Kristol has been released by the Foundation for Constitutional Government:

The fourth quarter economic growth numbers are in, and they are ugly:

At the Washington Free Beacon, Aaron MacLean writes about the false narratives about the state of the economy and the world under the Obama administration. MacLean suggests the alternative reality presented by Obama and propagated by a compliant media led the country to revolt against it and reject…

The Trump win was supposed to sink the economy. Instead, things—at least so far—seem to be looking up. And so a new media narrative has just been launched: If Donald Trump succeeds, it will be because President Barack Obama gave him such a great push. How else to explain the near simultaneous…

When Donald Trump takes office in January he's promised a long list of executive orders and federal regulations he'll unwind or eliminate. And if he wants to avoid another economic meltdown driven by the housing market, he should rapidly start undoing the regulatory misapplication of the Community…

President Obama got a fair amount of good press a few weeks ago when it was reported that Americans' incomes had risen. But that was from 2014 to 2015. During 2016, Americans' incomes have dropped.

The American economy continues to grow, albeit slowly, and the jobs markets has been generating enough jobs to keep us at or close to full employment without triggering inflation. The economy added 156,000 jobs last month, not seriously out of line with the 75,000-125,000 jobs that observers such…

History will not end on November 8, 2016. The next day, the party that loses will pick itself up, dust itself off, and try again—in just 24 short months. That's how politics in a democratic republic works. While claiming that the Battle of Armageddon is upon us helps gin up turnout every two years,…

The winner: John Maynard Keynes, the advocate of government spending to boost growth. The loser: Angela Merkel, the austere fighter for balanced budgets. Host at the loose fiscal celebration at Harvard University: Larry Summers. Chief mourner at the austerity funeral: Jens Weidman, at the German…

On Wednesday, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post all ran above-the-fold, page-1 headlines touting recent gains in income for the typical American household. President Obama appeared at a political rally in Philadelphia and, after citing these gains and the existence of…

The Washington Examiner editorial board has declared the legacy of Barack Obama to be a transformed America—one that trusts its government and institutions less than it did when he became president. Here's an excerpt from the magazine's editorial:

We are having two crises. One is in the boardroom of the Federal Reserve system. In a speech to her central bank colleagues at Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen was believed by others than this writer to say that she was preparing to raise interest rates, subject of course to…

"Let Reagan be Reagan" conservatives cried when their champion made his first run for the White House, and it turned out to be good advice. "Let Trump be Trump," cries none other than Donald Trump himself, who has decided to replace the team of professional campaign advisers who want him to be…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on Hillary Clinton's economic plans.

The recent release of anemic quarterly economic-growth numbers for 2016 has revived the debate over the Obama economy. Some say it has been okay; some say it has been lousy. In truth, the economy under President Barack Obama has been historically bad. How bad? Adjusted for inflation, average yearly…

Donald Trump's speech on the economy Monday puts him in a strong position on the issue on which Hillary Clinton is weakest and politically vulnerable.

President Obama challenged "anti-government" types Wednesday to visit a nation with a poorly functioning government in order to appreciate how "useful" a well-run administration is to society.

Donald Trump set a lofty target for federal infrastructure spending Tuesday morning, saying that his administration would expend "at least double" the $275 billion over five years that Hillary Clinton has proposed.

The festival of Philadelphia celebrated the wonderful present and the even more fantastic future and the festivities went on well into the night. Then came morning and a bucket of cold water from the Commerce Department.

July 12 just might have been the day on which the retail sector as we have known it here in America came to its end. If not its end, surely the beginning of its end. Amazon has an estimated 54 million Prime customers in the U.S. who pay $99 per year, and millions more around the world who pay about…

So we will not add to the world's Brexit woes by having a recession here in America. At least not soon. The U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs in June, compared with a meager 11,000 in May (revised down yesterday from 38,000). Since we are deep into the political season, cheers from the Obama-Clinton…

It didn't take Brexit to make forecasters take a dim view of the future of the U.S. economy. A cloud considerably larger than a man's hand hovered over the computers of most forecasters before Brexit shocked markets into a deep but transient swoon. The Federal Reserve Board said it dare not raise…

Hillary Clinton said Friday that the unemployment rate under President Obama, which dropped to its lowest point in May since 2007, was "disappointing."

The economy added only 38,000 jobs in May and the workforce shed almost half a million people.

Incomes are up. Jobs are so plentiful that employers complain they cannot find workers who have the right skills and can pass a drug test, and college graduates are entering the best market in years. Industrial output is rising. Housing starts rose 6.6 percent and building permits 3.6 percent in…

California and Massachusetts regulators have decided to allow Uber drivers to be considered independent contractors rather than employees, a distinction crucial to the success of the ride-sharing app. But it’s hardly the last word on the matter. The left has been vilifying Uber as the villain of…

Now we know. It will be Hillary Rodham Clinton vs. Donald J. Trump only some seven months from now, when election day arrives and puts a merciful end to our elongated campaign season. The winner will inherit an economy that, in all probability, will be continuing its slow crawl, with growth at or…

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz spoke at length about the American economy Friday morning, making a case that a return to robust growth would help alleviate myriad problems troubling the country's fiscal health.

Is a slow-growth future inevitable for America? More than ever, that’s the conclusion of economists, and it's a recurring theme of some presidential candidates. The irony is that the U.S. economy has been leading the world for a century in terms of total GDP, income per capita, and entrepreneurial…

When Ronald Reagan ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, the top issue was the sour economy. Reagan’s solution was a 30 percent, across-the-board cut in individual income tax rates. As nominee, he stuck with the big tax-cut as his main message. And he followed through as…

Most conservatives believe Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have wrong solutions to the stagnation in wages and job creation that has marked the American economy since 2000. But Trump and Sanders have proven better vote-getters than conservative candidates because, politically speaking, having wrong…

There will certainly be a recession this year. Unless there won’t. That is the consensus view of economists. The bad news is that even the optimists are having difficulty explaining away the reams of incoming data, and that even the cheeriest of the bunch are predicting a no-to-low-growth outlook…

G.K. Chesterton famously remarked, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried." The same can be said of a more down-to-earth but still-radical idea: The late Jack Kemp's antipoverty proposal for urban enterprise zones was found…

Guilty as charged. That's my response to anyone who accuses me of having spilled too much ink writing about what Janet Yellen might do, has done, and will do now that she has raised the Fed funds rate for the first time in a decade. By way of expiation, here is a look at some less-heralded…

Reuters reports that:

Crude trades below below $40. Copper has "sunk as low as around $4,440 in late November, the lowest in some six and a half years." Larry Summers is warning in the Washington Post that:

The left, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, is now gunning for the bond markets. It isn't a surprise that all markets, including bond markets, move and change with supply and demand. This is a simple principle that guides businesses, investors, and markets around the world. However, much of the left…

Under three different CEOs, Walmart has done all kinds of somersaults to appease left-wing critics. In 2005, Lee Scott set goals of “zero waste” and “100 percent” conversion to renewable energy. In 2009, Mike Duke, the next CEO, took on Obamacare—as an outspoken supporter of the unpopular health…

On the surface, little seems to have changed as the opening bell rang for the retailers’ battle that is the holiday shopping season. On Thanksgiving day we carved some 46 million turkeys and downed 50 million pumpkin pies despite a shortage of pecans created by Chinese consumers who imported the…

The latest epside of Conversations With Bill Kristol, featuring Larry Summers:

It is not for an economist to adjudicate between the president of the United States, who feels he is appealing to our better angels by asking our blessing for his plan to grant 10,000 refugees from the Syrian wars entry into our country, and his critics who fear that the wave might include…

Lift-off. That’s the conclusion to which observers jumped when the government announced on Friday that the economy added 271,000 jobs in October. And that the August and September figures have been revised upward by 12,000. And that the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent. And that discouraged…

Interesting political debates typically have what could be called primary effects. In Wednesday night's case, those would include the Bush-Rubio exchange, which did a lot of good for Rubio and a lot of damage to Bush, and the Cruz assault on the moderators, which was dazzling.

After the Great Depression, Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for 30 years—and with great success. Even though Hoover’s policies were anything but market-oriented—he greatly raised spending, taxes, and tariffs in response to the 1929 Wall Street crash—Republicans took the fall for Hooverism. It…

Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard, has posed an interesting question on his blog.

REO Speedwagon’s legendary guitarist Gary Richrath, a native of my hometown of Peoria, passed away on September 13 at age 65, which is a ripe old age for a rock star. His death marks an end to a musical era​—​I encourage you to skip the schlocky ballads of the band’s latter years and listen to the…

Strange as it may seem, Barack Obama has much in common with the storied matchmaker of Jewish legend. This Polish entrepreneur announced to the poverty-stricken rabbi of a poverty-stricken Polish town that she had found a match for his even more poverty stricken, unattractive son – no less than the…

Last week, the Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance in the United States. Don’t worry if you missed it. So did the Wall Street Journal, which noted several days later that the White House had failed to comment on the rather grim numbers. On Friday, the…

President Obama believes the Republicans are hijacking the economy. He made this latest statement in an email sent out to supporters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Two weekends ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City held its annual monetary conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The left flew in hundreds of protesters donning green T-shirts that demanded “Higher Wages for America” and chanting, “We’re Fed Up.” The crowd was an assortment of college kids…

Deep in the transcript of the interview ABC’s David Muir conducted with Hillary Clinton yesterday comes an indirect but very tough shot at the man she worked for and hopes to replace. In the course of answering a question about her mother, Clinton described her mother’s difficult upbringing and…

Whatever the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, the summer of 2015 will be remembered as the summer of Trump and Sanders. The other candidates, especially the Republicans, could learn a lesson from the two renegades, who have figured out how to capitalize on the fact that America is in a…

The economic recovery is barely worthy of the name, and there is evidence that inequality in America is increasing. Ignoring the first rule of statistics—correlation is not causation—progressives see this as a new reason to expand government. Reduce inequality and the growth rate will increase. 

Twenty-one years ago, Fortune boldly declared “The End of the JOB.” Thanks to rapid advances in technology, people had been freed from the tyranny of the nine-to-five workplace. Now they could set their own hours and schedules, do without constant oversight and supervision, and concentrate on a…

Warren Buffett had it right, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Peer through the fog of commentary on recent share price gyrations and you can see the unclothed figures of Chinese president Xi Jinping and his fellow managers of the Chinese economy, the very one…

On Friday, the government reported that the economy added 215,000 jobs last month, and that the  unemployment rate remained a low 5 percent. That could support a decision by the Federal Reserve Board to raise its key interest rate in September. But the absence of inflation and of a significant…

Conservatives of America, unite. You have nothing to lose but regulations and subsidies. Hark. Listen up. Pay attention. And if there is any other cliché that might get your attention, pencil it in.

A new report by the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, details adverse economic consequences of the Keystone XL pipeline's delay. The report highlights billions of dollars in untapped economic activity, and the over $1 trillion the U.S. has paid other countries for oil. It also…

Hillary Clinton outlined her economic agenda today at the New School in Manhattan, and attacked Uber. The ridesharing service did not reply to Clinton directly, but the company did post a story on its blog about how the service helps “senior mobility.” Clinton, a grandmother, is 67 years old.

Hillary Clinton delivered a speech on the economy earlier today in New York City. Here are the talking points the Clinton campaign sent along to friends and allies, hoping that they'll repeat these lines on cable news and in conversations:

Hillary Clinton attacked a bank that paid her husband, Bill Clinton, and donated to her family foundation at a speech on the economy today in New York City. The bank Clinton called out was HSBC.

First time claims for unemployment spiked last week.  As Bloomberg reports:

Rebecca Shabad of The Hill reports:

Parades, fireworks, patriotic songs, 150 million hot dogs consumed, 41 million car trips of more than 50 miles -- and heightened security in reaction to Islamist terrorist threats to disrupt our celebration with murder and mayhem as part of their celebration of their holy month of Ramadan. That’s…

Bloomberg reports that:

One reads of the crisis in Greece.   And the one much closer to home in Puerto Rico.  The crisis, that is, that inevitably comes after spending too much and taking on more debt than it is possible even to service, much less pay down. One thinks of how unfortunate it is for the people who will now…

We have been hearing, for so long now, that the end is nigh in the crisis of the Greek economy that it is hard to take another such warning seriously.  The problem of Greece, like so many others, seems to have no end, no resolution and, even, no point. Unless, that is, you are a citizen of Greece.…

The subject of debt – how much and how tolerable – slipped into the shadows for a time. But yesterday, it reappeared. As Rebecca Shabad of the Hill reports:

On Friday we learned that the U.S. economy surprised on the upside by adding 280,000 new jobs in May, and that 32,000 more jobs had been created in March and April than originally reported. The fact that economic growth is still sluggish, while more and more workers are finding jobs, suggests that…

The White House is celebrating the most recent jobs numbers. 

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate ticking up to 5.5 percent and that the economy added 280,000 jobs:

Bloomberg reports that:

That negative 1st quarter GDP has been widely passed off as the effect of a particularly severe winter.  Things, we were assured, were not that bad and would be getting better as the weather warmed.  Well, not so fast.  The Commerce Department came out this morning with a report on factory orders…

There is an important difference between European and American appetites, in addition to those for fast foods: risk taking. “Investments in Start-Ups Pick Up Pace,” reports the New York Times after surveying the high-tech financing scene here in America. “Europe Struggles to Foster a Startup…

Michelle Jamrisko at Bloomberg writes:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has a full-time position available for a web producer with editorial skills and social media expertise. Duties will include assisting the online staff with editorial and production tasks across a variety of digital and social media platforms.

After yesterday’s disappointing GDP number (it grew by a meager .2% in the last quarter) we got this from Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors:

Jordan Fabian at The Hill reports that:

Speaking Tuesday at the 45th Annual Washington Conference of the Council of the Americas, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "countries are far more likely to advance economically and socially when citizens have faith in their governments and are able to rely on them for justice and equal…

Bill de Blasio ran Hillary Clinton's New York Senate race in 2000. But he's not yet ready to endorse his former boss for president of the United States. He made the comments this morning in an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd:

The strong dollar, warns Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock in a letter to be released to shareholders next week, “will lead to an erosion of confidence on the part of CEOs, with the potential to slow both investment decisions and future growth in the U.S.” When you manage almost $5 trillion in assets,…

From CNBC, discouraging news that:

While businesses across the globe scramble to exploit the potential opportunities to be found in a country with 1.3 billion consumers, operating in China comes with profound business risks as well.

After China supplanted Japan in 2011 as the world’s second-largest economy, some China scholars, as well as pundits and economists, began forecasting when it would supplant the United States as the largest. Extrapolating China’s remarkable 9-10 percent average annual growth in the prior three…

Bloomberg reports that:

Bloomberg reports that:

Seems the answer, according to Gallup, is Not so much.

Water, Water Everywhere

Bloomberg reports that:

First time claims fell, as Reuters reports, by:

Sometimes, anecdote is more revealing than data. A few days’ gleanings:

Kate Davidson of the Wall Street Journal reports that:

When is a tax break really just government spending? When it's a "refundable tax credit."

The economy did not grow as robustly in the 4th quarter as had been thought.  Bloomberg reports that:

The recovery may be slowing and the end of the Fed’s QE efforts receding further into the future.

The Obama administration’s line on the economy appears to be that it has finally turned the corner and things are truly humming.  And maybe so.  But there are signs of trouble amid all the good cheer.

Markets work. That’s the message from Walmart’s decision to raise its starting wage for 500,000 of its 1.3 million US employees to $10 per hour starting next year. That’s 37% above the statutory minimum of $7.25. No, the notably cost-conscious company, the largest private-sector employer in…

Just weeks after announcing a program to make two years of community college free to all, President Obama has doubled down on "free" by introducing a plan to give all fourth-graders and their families a year of free access to all national parks. The "Every Kid in a Park" initiative, introduced to…

The first number in a week that will produce many of them, culminating with monthly non-farm payrolls, is not promising for the recovery.  As Bloomberg reports:

Listen to the president, his staff, and his supporters and you might be ready to believe that the economy is on a rocket ride to prosperity.  More jobs, lower gas prices, increased consumer spending.  So now, at last, we can afford to do away with sequestration and other implements of austerity.…

Predictions of a robustly growing economy may prove as evanescent as yesterday’s winter storm warnings.  As Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports:

The White House launched a new campaign this week to build support for President Obama's executive action on immigration. Although the campaign is to feature state-by-state advantages weekly over the new few months, one of the purported nationwide benefits of the president's actions is what amounts…

What should be a recovery on steroids – after all, it has had six years to get in shape – is still not up to speed.  If there were as many people in the labor force now, as there were when President Obama came into office, the unemployment rate would be close to 10%.  And the spirit of…

Barack Obama and his disciples began worrying about his legacy even before he took office.  He would not be satisfied to be judged competent or good.  He was going to be a transformative president. He has been widely mocked for claiming that his election would mark the moment when the seas began to…

The president is proposing more higher education (at the community college level) as a cure for our economic woes.  Along with some substantial tax increases, of course.  But is more college the answer?  Or should we, perhaps, be concerned about the quality of the college we already have when, as…

Bloomberg is reporting that:

 Lucia Mutikani of Reuters writes:

President Obama is in a good mood. He believes the country, under his leadership, is heading in the right direction.

It’s us against them—an American economy on the upswing vs. a global economy that definitely is not. Last year the U.S. economy added almost 3 million jobs, the largest number in fifteen years. The headline unemployment rate is down to 5.6 percent, and the so-called U-6 unemployment rate, which…

It was a good year for jobs. As Bloomberg notes:

Had enough good economic news to see you through the holidays? Good. But if you plan to ask, “Please, sir, I want some more” you might be in store for your own Oliver Twist moment. Here’s why:

The Wall Street Journal reports that first time unemployment claims:

The economic news has been getting better, especially regarding the price of oil. Which the consumer sees as what he forks over at the pump. And that, as we all know, is one price the trend of which we follow every day.  

We’re hearing from all over just how good things are – and are becoming ever more so – and how on top of the game the president is.  There is that 5 percent GDP growth last quarter and an unemployment rate that has dropped below 6 percent (the bar has, obviously, been lowered) and the stock market…

An estimated 90 million of us will drive 50 miles or more during this holiday season, and recent years’ gnashings of teeth at the pump are being replaced with smiles. The price of gasoline is down 36 percent since April, to a national average of around $2.40 per gallon, with some cities reporting…

Reason for good cheer.  The Wall Street Journal reports that:

Not that long ago, the world’s central bankers rushed to rescue a small nation with a colorful history and a very troubled economy.  How everything, but everything, came to depend on the survival of Greece’s economy was never quite clear but the crisis went away. 

The new dawn didn’t. There was to be no more sturm und drang, no more brinkmanship, no more government shutdowns, no more threats of default on America’s debt. Just routine passage of a $1,100,000,000,000 spending bill to keep the government running until next September when the current fiscal year…

The European Parliament has called for the dismemberment of Google, the French want  “les Gafa,” as they call Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, reined in, EU regulators are under pressure to get tough with the Americans. And the leaders of Silicon Valley’s non-tax-paying, privacy-invading,…

The economy added more than 320,000 jobs last month. Against a forecast of 230,000. The unemployment rate holds at 5.8 percent, indicating that many who had previously given up are again seeking employment.

Good news: price of gas down.  Bad news: price of beef up.  Seems that while oil is plentiful, slaughter-weight steers are not. As Megan Durisin of Bloomberg reports:

American consumers restrained themselves over the Thanksgiving holiday.  With regard to shopping, at any rate.  As Hiroko Tabucchi of the New York Times reports:

“Give me your tired, your poor … your huddled masses … wretched refuse … the homeless,” implores the Lady in New York harbor. Little can she know that 11.4 million of these “tempest-tost” souls are already here, having arrived illegally, most from Mexico and points south. Some 4-5 million of those…

Some 140 million bargain-hunting customers will descend on retailers on Thanksgiving Day, so-called Black Friday, and throughout next weekend -- or at least those who haven’t shopped already or by early next week will head for the shops. Not so long ago most stores remained closed  on Thanksgiving…

There is more than might have been, but a lot less than first meets the eye. That describes the climate deal struck this week by President Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping in their private two-day meeting following a gathering of 19 Asian Pacific leaders in Beijing. The very fact of a…

Recent news on the economy has been generally encouraging so it is possible that this week’s first time claims number could be a one-off.  As Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports,

President Obama, an increasingly leaky White House tells us, fears irrelevance. I am still relevant, the president all-but declared at his recent press conference. And to prove it, he told us about his constitutional authority to issue executive orders and to veto bills that he finds in conflict…

The monthly BLS report on unemployment comes in under expectations which were for some 235,000 news jobs.  So the 214,000 is a downside miss.  However, the new benchmark for “good, not great” seems to be a monthly increase in of 200,000.  And the economy has hit that number for nine consecutive…

Lorraine Woellert of Bloomberg reports:

Whether or not Jeff Bell comes from behind to win the New Jersey Senate race, he deserves credit for having run a classy, ideas-focused race. That's epitomized by his "closing argument," reproduced below. If a majority of New Jersey voters actually read this email, I do think Bell would win. The…

On Tuesday those of us who have not already availed ourselves of postal ballots or early voting will troop to the polls to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 of the 100 senators, 36 governors, and a host of politicians vying for local office. These old-fashioned voters will…

News on the economy had been promising these last few days, especially the GDP increase in the last quarter.  Today comes a not-so-good report on consumer spending.  As Victoria Stilwell reports at Bloomberg:

The indicators for the economy are looking good.  For those who view the world through a political prism, this news may be coming too late to help the president and his party in the mid-terms.  And for those whose view is long and wide, the skies are not entirely blue.  There is the matter of labor…

Producers may be apprehensive about economic prospects, but consumers are upbeat.  As Danielle Trubow of Bloomberg reports:

The number for September orders of durable goods is one of three that were anticipated as indicators of where the economy is headed … or if it is merely treading water. (Housing prices and consumer confidence are the others.) Expectations were for a modest increase in durables after a bad number…

The Peter Drucker sallies about how government “can only do two things well: wage war and inflate the currency” is being severely tested.  Today, we see this headline, over a piece by Jonathan Spicer of Reuters 

The president insists that his programs have done great things for the economy and that, while he is not on the ballot in next week’s elections, his policies are. Well, as Mike Dorning of Bloomberg reports:

Hillary Clinton, doing her no-bull, forceful leader number, tells an audience:

No longer do innovators style themselves “entrepreneurs.” Too French-effete sounding. Nor do these creators call themselves “capitalists.” Too likely to displease liberal friends who associate that label with exploitation of someone or other. Today’s innovator class prefers “disrupter.” Nothing…

Amidst the cliched rhetoric decrying “unpatriotic” companies that accompanied the Obama administration’s recent move to address corporate inversions, it was easy to miss the fact that there is relatively little of substance that can be remedied via regulation alone, even with Treasury Secretary…

Oh, woe! Ebola has come to America and 150 people from infected countries are landing here every day. ISIS is battering the Kurds, to whom we have not sent the weapons we promised, and will chase the Iraqi army out of Baghdad as soon as they finish taking over Kobani. Europe is headed into still…

Vice President Joe Biden talked about the trouble the middle class is having during the Barack Obama presidency at an event earlier today in Philadelphia:

First time claims came in on the low side. Unexpectedly so.  Which seems, paradoxically, predictable. 

At a Hollywood fundraiser last night in Gwyneth Paltrow's backyard, President Obama explained that the rich are getting richer. "Most of the gains in our economy go to the folks who are in this lovely yard," Obama said.

If James Carville is still remotely right that “It’s the economy, stupid,” then it’s no wonder that it has been tough sledding for Senate incumbents this fall.  Members of the Senate class that’s up for reelection this year were, of course, elected (or reelected) in November 2008 and began their…

Peter Schroeder of The Hill reports that:

It is a global economy and Europe is sneezing.  As the FT report:

The U.S. economy added 248,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent. But the labor force participation rate continued to fall, average hourly earnings seem frozen, and over 13 percent of workers are either out of work, involuntarily working part time or too…

Coming in ahead of the unemployment figure for September, which will be released on Friday, and tomorrow’s weekly first-time-claims number, the ADP jobs report might be some sort of harbinger. In the case of today’s number, a happy one, as Paul Davidson of USA Today reports:

This is the conclusion, as Pedro Nicolaci Da Costa of the Wall Street Journal  reports, reached by:

First time claims are looking good.  As Jeffry Bartash at Maket Watch reports:

If you know how many months there are in a “considerable time,” you will know exactly when Janet Yellen and her colleagues on the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy committee plan to begin raising interest rates. If not, you can add your guess to those of professional Fed watchers who are…

Ben Casselman and Reuben Fischer-Baum of 538 have gone inside the numbers (as they say) of the economic recovery and their findings are not comforting.

First, the good news. Initial unemployment claims, which were expected to come in at 305,000, came in at 280,000 good deal less than that. More people working might mean that, in time, wages will rise and families that have never seen their financial situations improve since the Great Recession,…

Regarding the economy, we have come to expect the unexpected which is, it sometimes seems, the only thing one can count on.  For instance, Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg is reporting today that:

The administration continues to advance its arguments about the economy, with the president even tacking on to the end of his somber speech about new military action in the Middle East, a digression about how well things are going with jobs, manufacturing, and etc.

Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg reports that:

Analysts hoping to rebut the purveyors of gloom who are arguing that America is in long-term decline were looking to Friday’s job report for comfort. They got none. Instead of continuing to create about 200,000 each month, the economy produced a mere 142,000 new payroll jobs, and only 134,000 in…

The mood before this morning’s jobs report landed with a thud was one of high, almost touching optimism.  For example, there was this from Matt Phillips at Quartz:

The eagerly anticipated jobs report comes in at less than 3/4s of the anticipated 200,000-plus.  As Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg reports:

Recent talk about the economy (especially from within the administration) has been upbeat. So the employment (jobs) number for August, which will be released tomorrow, will be looked at closely since that is the measure of economic health and progress that most people – and, hence, all politicians…

Even after yesterday’s promising first time claims and GDP numbers, the state of the economy – especially on the jobs, employment, wages side – remains uncertain and troubling as we enter the Labor Day weekend.  As Mark Gimein of Bloomberg reports:

Jeanna Smialek and Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports that:

Slow growth is bad for everyone.  Including the government, which depends (sort of) on tax revenues to do its job.  Now, as Kasia Klimasinska of Bloomberg reports:

First time claims were expected to be come in at 303,000.  The actual number was 298,000.  As Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports:

If the economic recovery is dismissed as a chimera by half the population, there is a reason. As Aki Ito, Ian Katz, and Ilan Kolet of Bloomberg report:

Writing in The Week, James Pethokoukis asks the troubling question: “Is the U.S. economic recovery almost over — already?”

Economic factors alone cannot, of course, account for the tensions and violence in Ferguson, Missouri which are undeniable and alarming. Still, one wonders how much less volatile things might have been if the community were not experiencing the following, as detailed by Brookings:

At long last we are emerging from the blind alleys down which the debate about income inequality seems to have wandered. The first such dead end was marked “fairness.” The top tenth of one percent of earners feel the tax system unfairly expropriates too large a portion of their incomes, bloated…

At long last we are emerging from the blind alleys down which the debate about income inequality seems to have wandered. The first such dead end was marked “fairness.” The top tenth of one percent of earners feel the tax system unfairly expropriates too large a portion of their incomes, bloated…

Yesterday’s first time claims number was disappointing. Today, as Renee Dudley of Bloomberg reports, Walmart's

Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports that:

The numbers in a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll got the attention of Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post who reacted this way:

Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg reports that:

At last, some good news about the U.S. economy. Sort of. The government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reckons the economy grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of the year (data subject to revision). If that rate continues, five years of a lackadaisical recovery would be…

The 302,000 is a so, so number.  But close to what was expected – 300,000.  And not as good as last week’s 284,000.  But as Bloomberg reports, the monthly average is encouraging.