Tag Archives: GDP

While the reaction to Thursday's report on personal income and spending for May was largely positive, it may have also been misplaced.

With a boost from the calendar, personal income rose 0.5 percent in May--faster than economists had forecast--while personal consumption went up an unsurprising 0.3 percent the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday.

An increase in prices itself does not signal a bubble. An unsustainable increase, not supported by other data, however, would.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the United States rose 0.1 percent in May to 95.2, a disappointing movement compared to April's 0.8 percent increase. However, experts at the Conference Board note the index's stability is a good sign. "Despite month-to-month volatility, the LEI's six-month growth rate remains steady, suggesting that conditions in the economy remain resilient," said economist Ataman Ozyildirim. The Coincident Economic Index rose 0.2 percent, while the Lagging Economic Index increased 0.3 percent.

Restrained by drops in farm income and sequester-driven cuts in government programs, personal income slipped $5.6 billion in April, while personal consumption spending dropped $20.5 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday.

Economists usually do it with models, so it's rare in economics to be able to conduct a laboratory experiment.

When the Federal Open Market Committee completed its two-day meeting at the beginning of May, it issued the usual six-paragraph post-meeting statement.

The nation's economy rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than economists had expected but more than six times the growth rate in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday.

What do you do when you find out Santa Claus doesn't exist? That's the situation House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) faces now.

The ongoing housing recovery bodes well for the future of commercial real estate (CRE), TD Economics (an affiliate of TD Bank) says in a recent report.