Small business indicators, China business survey, Car sales, FDI, Euro retail sales

Light vehicle sales peaked a while back: Been helping to support the $US: Eurozone Retail Sales Fall Unexpectedly Retail trade in the Euro Area fell 0.3% in May, following a 0.1% drop in April and missing expectations of a 0.3% growth, as sales declined for all main categories. Among the bloc’s largest economies, Germany’s retail […]

Producer prices, Retail sales, Business inventories, Consumer sentiment, Saudi output, German, Euro area GDP

Nothing here to get the Fed concerned about inflation: Not good, less then expected and excluding autos, a ‘core reading’ even worse. Seems to me that perhaps the higher gas prices that caused the increases over the last couple of month’s have taken their toll on other spending. And at the macro level, without an […]

Apartment market tightness, Euro area trade surplus, Spain

This just keeps going up, which fundamentally tends to drive up the euro which tends to continue to be subject to said upward pressure until the trade picture reverses: Euro Area Balance of Trade The Eurozone trade surplus increased to €23.6 billion in November of 2015 compared to a €20.2 billion surplus a year earlier. […]

CPI, Redbook Retail Sales, Industrial Production, Housing Index, Containers, FHA Capital, EU Car Registrations, Japan

Part of the Fed’s mandate is to hit it’s 2% inflation target: Still at recession type levels: This is also what recession looks like: The anointed ‘driver of the economy’ continues to falter as previously discussed: Housing Market Index Highlights The housing market index from the nation’s home builders shows weakness, at 62 for November […]

School and Unemployment, Spain Conference Link

How Have Prime-Age Workers in School Affected the Labor Market? Just one of several possible factors keeping the participation rate down and the reported unemployment rate lower than otherwise, which in my narrative are the consequences of low aggregate demand/the federal deficit is too small, etc. From the St. Louis Fed: In the first scenario, […]

Spain, QE chart, Wholesale trade, UK and France industrial production, Import and export prices

Fyi, we will be in Spain next week. Here are some of the details: There is a newly formed MMT Group in Spain called APEEP which stands for “Asociación para el Pleno Empleo y la Estabilidad de Precios”. In an effort to bring MMT into the political debate in Spain, they will be hosting me […]

France PMI, Germany PMI, EU PMI, EU Retail Sales, UK service PMI, US Trade, ISM Non Manufacturing, Saudi Pricing

France : PMI Composite Highlights French private sector activity in August expanded at a significantly slower pace than indicated in the flash report according to the final PMI data for the month. At just 50.2, a 7-month low, the key composite output index was revised down an unusually large 1.1 points versus its preliminary reading […]

Mortgage Purchase Apps, EU Retail Sales, Payroll Tax, ADP, Trade, Equity Comment

While still historically very low, purchase apps are now way up over last year’s particularly depressed levels. Some are replacing all cash buyers, but the increase is also in line with increased existing home sales. While new home sales were soft, turnover of existing homes has been increasing, and while not directly increasing GDP, existing […]