Economy Watch: Apartments Drive Homebuilding Surge in September
Home starts experienced an unexpected uptick in September, increasing 15 percent to an annualized rate of 658,000 units.
Economy Watch: Homebuyers a Little Less Glum
It’s probably a case of “nowhere to go but up,” but even so it counts as good news that homebuilder confidence rose four points to 18 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for October.
Economy Watch: Germans Throw Cold Water on Euro Quick-Fix
Germany and France are still at odds about the best way to recapitalize banks who once thought that Greek and Irish and Portuguese and even Italian debt would be a good investment.
Economy Watch: Retail Sales See Unexpected Spike
According to Commerce, spending was up month-over-month by 1.1 percent, the largest gain since early this year.
‘Economy Watch’ Podcast with Dees Stribling: Tracking Foreclosures
Dees Stribling discusses the state of the economy for the week ending 10/14.
Economy Watch: Residential Foreclosures Down, But Still High
Foreclosure specialist RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure filings dropped a little less than 1 percent during the third quarter of 2011 compared with the second quarter.
Economy Watch: Fed Uncertain What to Do
The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its Sept. 20-21 FOMC meeting on Wednesday, and to some extent they showed a central bank uncertain about how to handle the unexpected halt in the recovery in mid-2011.
Economy Watch: Jobs Bill Sunk by Senate
The U.S. Senate, in a procedural vote on Tuesday night, voted 50 to 49 to open debate on President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, thus effectively scuttling the measure.
Economy Watch: Wall Street Has a ‘What-Me-Worry?’ Day
Even though it was Columbus Day, U.S. equities markets weren’t closed on Monday, and investors took advantage of the open markets to buy and then buy some more.
Economy Watch: September Jobs Report: Better Than Nothing
Recent employment trends haven’t been particularly positive. Since April, payroll employment has increased by an average of 72,000 jobs per month, compared with an average increase of 161,000 during the seven months before this April.