We have heard a great deal this year about manufacturing coming back to the United States. We hear about the diminishing wage gap in some Asian countries and the possibility of lower U.S. energy prices.
The Social Security administration announced there will be a 1.5% increase in social security benefits next year. The cost of living adjustment is fairly low, but if chained CPI had passed Congress and was used, the situation for social security increases would be much worse.
Happy Halloween! ADP's proprietary private payrolls jobs report have given us all a fright with a gain of only 130,000 private sector jobs for October 2013. The scary October surprise continues as ADP revised September's job figures down by 21,000 to 145 thousand jobs. This report does not include government, or public jobs.
The August 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 12.8% price increase from a year ago for over 20 metropolitan housing markets and a 12.7% change for the top 10 housing markets from a year ago. Once again price increases are on high for homes.
September 2013 Retail Sales decreased by -0.1% on auto sales, which plunged -2.4% from the previous month. Motor vehicle dealers sales have still increased 5.8% from a year ago. Without all motor vehicles & parts sales, September retail sales would have shown a 0.4% increase.
The September 2013 Federal Reserve Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows a 0.6% increase in industrial production. Manufacturing alone barely grew, a 0.1% gain for the month, while utilities roared up by 4.4% after falling for five months in a row. Mining increased 0.2%. Industrial production finally reached pre-recession levels this month.
The U.S. August 2013 monthly trade deficit barely budged from last month, a 0.4% increase and now stands at -$38,803 billion. America still runs a surplus in services, now at $19.417 billion, but the goods deficit is still massive and this month was -$58.220 billion.
This week in outrageous economic shorts we quote insightful articles covering the JPMorgan Chase $13 billion settlement for bundling bad mortgages and pawning them off to unsuspecting investors. The case is due to the actions of two acquisitions made by JPMorgan Chase, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.
Tonight's documentary is Inside Job. Made in 2010, this is probably the best documentary on the financial crisis and it also won an Academy award. It should also make your blood boil and then bubble over considering business as usual is still going on. The conflicts of interest alone exposed in this film will stun you In short it's a must see and if you have watched it already, well, see it again.
The Durable Goods, advance report shows new orders increased by 3.7% for September 2013, but the gains are due to volatile aircraft and parts orders. Without transportation orders, which aircraft is a large part, durable goods new orders fell by -0.1%. Shipments increased by 0.2% and are at a record high level.
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