Tag Archives: Mark Lieberman

In a newly published paper, Robert Hockett proposes using government's eminent domain authority as a solution to underwater mortgage debt.

Driven by stronger auto sales but held back by falling gasoline sales, total retail sales increased 0.6 percent in May, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Excluding auto sales, retail activity increased 0.3 percent in May compared with April, when it was essentially flat.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell to 334,000 for week ending June 8, dropping 12,000 after decreasing 11,000 one week earlier, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected initial claims to increase to 350,000 from the prior week. Claims filings for the week ending June 1 remained at the originally reported 346,000.

The number of job openings fell in April for the fourth time in the last five months as the number of people leaving their jobs jumped to the highest level since August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Tuesday in its month Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). According to the JOLTS report, the number of persons unemployed for each job opening rose to 3.10, the first increase in that measure since February. The number of unemployed per job opening fell sharply in the construction industry to 7.7.

When President George W. Bush followed his predecessor Bill Clinton in pushing homeownership, one loud dissenter was British economist Andrew Oswald, who argued that far from improving the economy--as Bush (and Clinton before him) said it would--homeownership hurts the economy in the long run. Now, Oswald and Dartmouth Economics Professor David Blanchflower are at it again in a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research with arguments even they admit may be shallow.

The economy added 175,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6.percent, the first month-over-month increase since January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday.

Household net worth jumped by $3 trillion in the first quarter as real estate values grew $836 billion, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday in its quarterly Flow of Funds report. With a drop in mortgage debt, owners' equity in real estate increased a sharp 2.5 percentage points to its highest level since 2007. Owners' equity as a percentage of real estate value has been on a steady upward trajectory since dropping to 36.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

First time claims for unemployment insurance fell back to 346,000 for the holiday-shortened week ended June 1, dropping 11,000 after increasing 13,000 one week earlier the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected initial claims to drop to 345,000.

The nation's economy grew at a "modest to moderate pace" from early April through the end of May, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. The report cited growing strength in the housing and residential construction sector and the impact on the broader economy, with residential real estate and construction activity increasing "at a moderate to strong pace in all Districts." In addition, "overall bank lending improved modestly since the previous report."

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.