Thursday morning brought the first official look at GDP growth in the first quarter. Headline growth was a disappointing, if not surprising, 1.8%. Here’s my usual graph of how various components of the economy contributed to overall growth: Consumers continued to spend at a moderate pace; their spending grew at a 2.7% rate, thus adding [...]
Archive for the ‘Data’ Category
A Tepid Quarter for GDP
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, GDP on April 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »
200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
Posted in Data, International, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, International, Visualization on December 2, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Courtesy of the BBC. here’s the newest version of Hans Rosling’s famous presentation on economic growth and life expectancy. Keep an eye out for the moments in history when life expectancy plummets.
October Rail Traffic – Still Upbeat
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, Macroeconomics on November 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »
October was another solid month for America’s railroads, according to the Association for American Railroads. October traffic was 11% higher than the depressed levels of a year ago: Intermodal traffic (think trailers and containers) is up 14% over 2009, thus returning to 2008 levels: Carloads (think bulk materials like coal, grains, minerals, and chemicals plus autos) [...]
Another Tepid Quarter for GDP
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, GDP on October 30, 2010 | 5 Comments »
BEA released its first estimates for third-quarter GDP yesterday. Headline growth was a disappointing, if not surprising, 2.0%. Here’s my usual graph of how various components of the economy contributed to overall growth: Housing fell back into the red, while non-residential structures eked out a small gain. Consumers continued to spend at a moderate pace [...]
Happy World Statistics Day
Posted in Data, tagged Data on October 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Collecting and disseminating useful data about the economy, government finances, demographics, health, the environment, etc. can be a difficult business. Survey methodologies and estimation techniques are inevitably open to legitimate criticism and also attract a good deal of not-so-legitimate criticism (for examples of both, see the debate over the “birth death model” in estimating payroll employment). But all [...]
August Rail Traffic, An Upbeat Economic Indicator
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, Macroeconomics on September 6, 2010 | 1 Comment »
August was a busy month for America’s railroads, according to the Association for American Railroads. Traffic spiked up, as often happens during the month. More importantly, August traffic was 11% higher than a year ago (the same gain as reported in July): Carloads (think bulk materials like coal, grains, minerals, and chemicals plus autos) are [...]
Further Signs of a Slowdown
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, GDP, Macroeconomics on August 27, 2010 | 2 Comments »
As expected, BEA’s second stab at GDP growth for the second quarter was even less inspiring than the first. Headline growth was a tepid 1.6%, down from the 2.4% previously reported. Consumer spending and business spending on equipment and software were actually stronger than earlier estimates, but business structures, inventories, and exports all weakened, while [...]
“Tracking” the Economy
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, Macroeconomics on August 9, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The fine folks at the Association of American Railroads are out with their latest edition of Rail Time Indicators. Total traffic (carloads plus intermodal) in July was about 11% higher than the dismal levels of a year ago, but remains about 10% below earlier years: The rebound has been weaker in carloads (think bulk materials [...]
A Silver Lining in Second Quarter GDP?
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, Economy, GDP, Macroeconomics on August 1, 2010 | 9 Comments »
Last Friday the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its first look at GDP growth in the second quarter. BEA estimates that the economy grew at a moderate 2.4% annual pace in the quarter, notably slower than the 3.7% pace in the first quarter and the 5.0% pace in the fourth quarter of 2009 (both those [...]
Consumer Spending is 60% of the Economy, not 70%
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Consumers, Data, Economy, GDP, Macroeconomics on June 25, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Early Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its third look at economic growth in the first quarter. The results were disappointing: BEA now estimates that Q1 growth was only 2.7%, down from the prior estimate of 3.0%. A key reason: consumer spending was weaker than previously thought. As I noted in May, the monthly [...]
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