If you haven't heard the story of corporate food manufacturer's adding plastics to your food, you should. This one is downright disgusting and what it has done to people, health wise, is yet to be seen. Instead of using good old fashioned yeast for breads, these companies add dough conditioners, which are in fact plastic. The reason your sandwich looks so good is because it is shellacked.
The Durable Goods, advance report shows new orders declined by -1.0% for January 2014, but December 2013 new orders were revised downward to a -5.3% plunge. The better news of this report is core capital goods increased by 1.7%. For the last three of four months durable goods new orders as a whole have declined.
Yet another Senate report, yet another bank is busted for tax evasion. The Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations has released a report on Credit-Suisse bank detailing their systemic offshore tax evasion of U.S. funds.
January 2014 New Residential Single Family Home Sales increased 9.6% to 468,000 in annualized sales. This change is well within the statistical error margin of ±17.9%. This is the highest level of new home sales since July 2008. New single family home sales are now just 2.2% above January 2013 levels, but this figure has a ±20.2% margin of error.
The December 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 13.4% price increase from a year ago for the 20 metropolitan housing markets and a 13.6% yearly price increase in the top 10 housing markets.
The Obama administration is finally abandoning their endorsement of chained CPI for next years budget. The reason is probably not good economics, but political. Election season is near and this is just one of many policies the Obama administration endorsed which raised the ire of the retired. A refresher, chained CPI is another method to adjust for cost of living increases at a reduced rate than what is currently used, CPI-W.
Economic theory teaches that free price and profit movements ensure that capitalism produces the greatest welfare for the greatest number. Losses indicate economic activities where costs exceed the value of production, thus investment in these activities is curtailed. Profits indicate economic activities where the value of output exceeds its cost, thus investment increases. Prices indicate the relative scarcity and value of inputs and outputs, thus serving to organize production most efficiently.
The NAR reported existing home sales plunged -5.1% from last month and are down -5.1% from January of last year. This is the 3rd decline from from year ago. Existing home sales are now at July 2012 levels. While many blame the harsh winter on falling sales, in the West where weather has not been a factor, existing home sales declined -7.3% for the month and are down -13.7% for the year.
The monthly Consumer Price Index increased 0.1% for January. CPI measures inflation, or price increases. While the monthly inflation number seems low, the situation is actually a mixed bag as electricity has it's largest inflation jump since January 2010. Natural gas costs also ballooned and the cost of sheltering oneself rose dramatically.
Why does the Fed keep claiming Baby Boomers are the main reason for the decline in the labor force? The real reason is because there aren't enough jobs for prime-age workers, and not mostly because older workers are leaving the work force.
Regarding this post: The Economic Outlook and Forward Guidance from the Atlanta Fed: It states, "About half of the fall in participation can be explained by demographic trends— that is, baby boomers choosing to retire."
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