Q3 2013 real GDP came in at 2.8% Changes in business inventories saved the day as did less of an increase in imports. Fixed investment also increased. Government spending declines were about the same as Q2, yet local governments increased spending. Consumer spending was less growth than Q2, only about 37% of this quarter's GDP.
Home ownership is at the lowest rate since the 4th quarter of 1995. The Census released their quarterly housing vacancies and home ownership report. The seasonally adjusted homeownership rate is 65.1%. Many in the press tried to claim homeownership is increasing by quoting the not seasonally adjusted home ownership rate of 65.3%, which gives an uptick in people owning homes in America from the 2nd quarter of 2013. The reality is, not so. The great ownership society went bankrupt.
The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders report shows factory new orders increased 1.7% for September. Without transportation equipment, new orders decreased -0.2%. August showed an overall -0.1% decline in new orders whereas July had a -2.8% plunge. For Q3 factory orders looks none too good.
Included below is a table taken from the retail sales report for September; notice that the 3 month change in sales from the 2nd quarter to the 3rd quarter is in the third column, and the change from the 3rd quarter from a year ago is in the 4th column. Now notice that seasonally adjusted sales for the July to September period are up 1.1% over the April to June period, and up 4.4% over the July to September period of a year earlier.
The October ISM Manufacturing Survey shows PMI increased 0.2 percentage points to 56.4% to another year high. Seems the survey results held in spite of the economic sabotage government shutdown although production figures declined by -1.8 percentage points. Increases in Inventories and slowing Supplier Deliveries is the reason PMI increased.
One might think that $11 dollars less per month in food stamps for an individual is not a big deal. But considering the maximum monthly amount one could have is $200 a month, now $189, it is. A whopping 15% of the population are on food stamps and now will experience a 5.4% cut in benefits, just in time for the holidays. As of July 2013, 47,637,407 people were receiving SNAP benefits.
Recent comments