Tag Archives: weekly economic summary

Old People Distorting Understanding Of the Employment Situation

Written by Steven Hansen Ask 10 people what is the definition of unemployment, and you will get 10 different answers.  The tragedy is that it is likely no person’s definition will match the definition used in the creation of the … Continue reading

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Student Loans Destroying Consumption

Written by Steven Hansen Over the long Christmas Holiday weekend, The New York Times published For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall.  The post is a anecdotal essay correlating being poor and the inability of those … Continue reading

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Productivity is Bad: The Economy Follows

Written by Steven Hansen Pundits seem to comment on elements outside their comfort zone (areas of real expertise). Everyone is guilty from time-to-time. I know my comfort zones, and one is in labor and labor dynamics which formerly was the … Continue reading

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Is US Debt Caused by the Trade Imbalance?

Written by Steven Hansen ….. the fiscal (government) deficit in the US cannot go away unless we also deal with the trade deficit. As we will see, it is a simple accounting issue, and one based on 400 years of … Continue reading

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Visualizing the Fiscal Cliff As a Life Extinction Event

Written by Steven Hansen [This post is loaded with sarcasm] A meteor coming towards the US East Coast is unlikely to stir up more headlines than the Fiscal Cliff – expiring tax cuts and forced spending cuts “destroying” America if … Continue reading

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Making The Economy Grow by Adding More Debt

Written by Steven Hansen I pen this while listening to the pundits talk about the terrible economy moving forward.  I too think the USA economy going forward will be mediocre at best.  This week ECRI has stated the recession began … Continue reading

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The Twinkies Effect On Employment

Written by Steven Hansen While we watch the drama over the demise of Hostess Brands,  the financial media hums with the suggestion that the silly labor movement, as well as business errors have driven this company into the ground. Additionally, … Continue reading

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The Economic Strangling of Joe Sixpack

Written by Steven Hansen I am not a lover of GDP as THE measure of the economy.  GDP measures money movement across sectors of the economy that economists have determined is “productive” growth.  Nothing is wrong with GDP as “one … Continue reading

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What Impacts Will Obamacare Have On Employment?

Written by Steven Hansen There has been much talk about the impact of Obamacare on employment dynamics in the USA.  Much of the recent discussion centers on the Obamacare definition of full-time employment: The law defines a full-time worker as … Continue reading

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Economic Bandaids and False Gods

Written by Steven Hansen Here we go again.  Election season is here and all we hear is how the incumbent or the challenger is off base and leading the U.S. to disaster.  The two biggest campaign talking points are unemployment … Continue reading

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Economic Rollercoaster: Some Days Good, Others Not So Good

Written by Steven Hansen This is the time of the month that Econintersect begins to prepare their economic forecast for August 2012.  Sitting here working on the forecast and listening to CNBC in the background  – the images in my … Continue reading

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Cliffs, Nightmares, and Hidden Consumer Taxes

Written by Steven Hansen While watching Chairman Bernanke weave and bob in front of Congress this past week, I started to ponder what he said: The U.S. economy has continued to recover, but economic activity appears to have decelerated somewhat … Continue reading

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Are Price Increases Killing Consumption?

Written by Steven Hansen Based on comments on my last post, that there are misconceptions about consumer spending patterns and the effects of price increases.  Consider several potential effects caused by price increases: A consumer can do without.  No vacation, … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Income and Consumption, Prices - PPI, CPI and More, Weekly Economic Summary, aa syndication | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Joe Sixpack May Be Returning to Consumption Trough

Written by John Lounsbury and Steven Hansen The New York Times this week posted Consumers Unlikely to Rekindle the Recovery.  To “prove” their point they presented three nasty but unfortunately correct graphics.

Posted in Personal Income and Consumption, Weekly Economic Summary, aa syndication | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Is April 2012 the Start Date of the Recession in Europe?

Written by Steven Hansen One of my favorite tools for monitoring the health of an economy is imports.   Imports naturally increase when the economy expands, and contracts as the economy recesses.   Most pundits watch trade balances as it is felt … Continue reading

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Joe Sixpack’s Economy Is Already in a Recession

Written by Steven Hansen It comes as no surprise to me that many believe we are in a recession. Joe Sixpack’s portion of the economy sucks (e.g. not good, for those who are uncertain what “sucks” means). The metric used … Continue reading

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Will USA Import the European Recession?

Written by Steven Hansen Recently, John Hussman’s weekly market comment implied a USA recession was likely to be triggered by the Eurozone recession. ……the argument from Wall Street is that despite clear evidence of recession across Europe, and significant slowdown … Continue reading

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Keeping Banks (not Greece) From Failing Is the Real Eurozone Crisis

Written by Steven Hansen Over the last several weeks, JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM)  has remained in the headlines after suffering trading losses tied to the bank’s now infamous “London Whale” with losses at  $7 billion more or less … Continue reading

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Is the Economy Improving As Tax Revenues are Growing?

Written by Steven Hansen Many pundits use Federal Government revenues as a pulse point for understanding the economy.  If government revenues are a good tool, then the economy over the last two months should be expanding robustly as revenues are … Continue reading

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Economy Continues to Grow Under the Shadow of Recession

Written by Steven Hansen This past week I have continued to ponder my friend Lakshman Achuthan’s renewed recession call where he stated: For the past three months, year-over-year real personal income growth has stayed lower than it was at the … Continue reading

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