The U.S. economy, like The New England Patriots last year, did not perform at its best during the first quarter. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 2.3% annual rate,…
Consumer Spending Up
One of the New Year’s predictions we made last week has already come true. We predicted that tax reform would result in higher consumer spending, not only because consumers would…
Appearance vs. Reality
Maybe if the good news about the U.S. economy gets repeated often enough, appearance will become reality. We’re not there yet. The official word from the U.S. Bureau of Labor…
Inflation Is Too Low? Tell That To American Consumers.
We’ve explained in the past how the federal government puts a yellow smiley face on its unemployment figures by excluding Americans who have given up looking for work and including…
The Unnoticed Recovery
It seems that every day we hear about a stronger economy with real jobs, a recovered housing market and renewed manufacturing strength being just ahead. We hear about it. We…
Another Clunker
It’s like “Cash for Clunkers,” only for consumers. You may remember that brilliant piece of Congressional economic planning, where an effort was made to boost auto sales by creating an…
Housing Recovery Continues … Sort Of
For the economy to recover, the housing market must recover. When consumers can barely pay their mortgages, they’re unlikely to spend money on other things – and when consumers don’t…