Before the recession took hold, former Clinton Treasury secretary Larry Summers wrote some of the most incisive columns about the state of the U.S. and world economies. But when he was an economic advisor for Obama in 2009-2010, I thought…
Category: Economics
Financial Times columnist Clive Crook slams U.S. political pandering
Just doing a little Sunday night news reading and ran across Clive Crook’s latest column in the Financial Times, in which he lambasts both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. for not engaging in a more serious debate about future…
Savannah area gas prices down 35 cents a gallon from recent peak
Since we see the price of gas more than the price of anything else, it’s easy to get caught up in very small changes, especially when the price is going up and up and up. According to GasBuddy.com, Savannah area…
Decline in air passengers a sign of economic weakness (but pleasant for travelers)
I hear pretty much nothing but complaints about air travel, and sometimes I wonder whether I occupy the same world that other people do. Most of my flights are roundtrips from Savannah to other small market airports. Six or seven…
New York Federal Reserve Bank president expects “a moderate recovery to continue”
Yesterday I summarized Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen’s comments about housing. Today New York Fed president William Dudley spoke in Brooklyn. The bulk of his remarks covered regional issues, but he focused also on the national economy. Like Bernanke, Dudley…
Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen speaks about housing woes
Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, who has been pretty sharp in her assessments of the economy in recent years, spoke about housing today in Cleveland. Here’s the entire speech. I’ll pull a few key excerpts out here. No particular surprises…
Georgia state revenues: continued but slowing growth in May
Well this is something that numbers wonks like me could get used to. In Tuesday’s press release about May’s state revenue, the Georgia Department of Revenue included far more graphs and charts than I’ve ever seen. Check out the full…
Extended excerpts of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s speech in Atlanta Tuesday
Well, I guess I’m officially in the camp of those who think a) that policymakers are overestimating the resiliency of the recovery and b)that the Fed is erring in its decisions not to take additional measures to boost the economy.…
The strong linkage between new construction and unemployment
For this post, I’m looking at graphs and data from Calculated Risk here and here. The first graph comes with the following description: Credit: Professor Amir Sufi. “This maps the unemployment rate in a state in 2010q4 against the percentage…
Williams-Sonoma coming to Savannah: good news for midtown, bad news for downtown
It wasn’t until earlier today that I found out that Williams-Sonoma is opening a store in Savannah, but the news has been available since at least June 3rd. According to Citybizlist: Williams Sonoma has signed a lease for 5,000 square…
Economist Rajeev Dhawan sees continued slow growth for Georgia
A few days ago, I made the case for a double-dip recession. Yesterday, in a smart piece in the AJC, Georgia State University economist Rajeev Dhawan — who has been right more often than not about the weakness of the…
South Carolina bank with Savannah branch fails
Well it’s not going to count as another Georgia bank failure, but another bank with a Savannah office failed yesterday: Charleston-based Atlantic Bank & Trust. According to the FDIC press release: The three branches of Atlantic Bank and Trust will…
About today’s bad job numbers . . .
In a post yesterday, I talked at some length about signs that could indicate we are entering a new (double-dip) recession right now. Check it out here. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly data showed sharply lower job growth…
Serious signs of a double-dip recession beginning
The National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee takes its time. It wasn’t until December 2008 that the NBER declared firmly the the recent recession began in December 2007. And it wasn’t until September 2010 that the NBER…