Research Center
Economy Watch: State Unemployment Rates Barely Budge
A new recession or not? The numbers and the opinions keep pouring in. Last week the Philadelphia Federal Reserve published a survey of regional manufacturers that showed a distinct regional slowdown in the main bright spot of the economy in recent years, namely manufacturing.
PODCAST: Economy Watch Weekly with Dees Stribling
What a long, strange week it’s been. For the week ending August 12, the Dow had four consecutive 400-point swings; the national median (existing) single-family home price was down 2.8 percent from the second quarter of 2010; and the government has proposed to sell thousands of foreclosed properties that Fannie, Freddie and the FHA now own, for conversion into rental properties.
Economy Watch: The Yo-Yoing of Wall Street
“Roller coaster” might not be a fitting metaphor for Wall Street during this nervous summer of 2011. Yo-yo might be better.
Economy Watch: The Wall Street Roller Coaster is Back
Wall Street seems determined to panic like it’s 2008, no matter what the bearded one says, so the roller-coaster ride was back downward on Wednesday, pretty much erasing Tuesday’s gains, which had mostly erased Monday’s losses.
Economy Watch: Fed To Market: Calm Down
The Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) statement on Tuesday, which much of the investing world had been anticipating (between moments of headless-chicken panic), started off bland enough, per Federal Reserve custom.
Economy Watch: S&P Downgrade Ripples Through the Markets
Observers, pundits and prognosticators weren’t quite sure what investors would do after Friday’s unprecedented Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt.
Economy Watch: S&P Lowers the Downgrade Boom
On Friday evening, Standard & Poor’s went where no rating agency has gone before by downgrading long-term U.S. sovereign debt.
PODCAST: Economy Watch Weekly with Dees Stribling
For the week ending August 5, Congress managed to raise the debt ceiling at the last minute, while handing off tough budget decisions to a congressional bipartisan Super Committee; Wall Street goes into a free-falling panic, presumably over euro debt; and the jobs report isn’t as bad as expected.
Economy Watch: Wall Street Tanks, but July a Better Month for Hiring than June
The July jobs reports had some relatively good news on the heels of Wall Street’s worst day in three years; commodities drop along with stocks; and CRE prices remain steady.
Economy Watch: Debt Ceiling Done, Now Back to Worrying about Jobs
Corporate downsizing announcements spiked to a 16-month high in July; a Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows a wide variation in jobless rates among metro areas; and the non-manufacturing sector is growing, but slowly.