Moment of crisis for the EU

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 10, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Because several of the European Economic Union’s members are at the precipice of crisis, especially Greece, the EU finds itself in unchartered territory.  This territory is likely to shake the EU to its very core and might even lead to the dissolution of the Union. Since World War Two Germany has remained the economic engine for Europe, yet because of its instigator role in the War, it was...
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It’s the unemployment rate, stupid

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 5, 2010 in Best of the Blog, Blog | 0 comments This morning the Department of Labor announced that the U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs in January.  Note the round figure; this is always a sure sign of an estimated number.  No big shakes there as the DoL’s jobless rate figure is always an estimate that gets revised multiple times before the figure is “official.”  Which brings me to December’s revised figure of 150,000...
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Big financial markets fall

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 5, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Good morning! Yes, yes, the U.S. financial markets took a big tumble on Thursday.  The DJIA fell 2.6%, its biggest percentage decline since early July of 2009.  While the S&P 500 fell 3.1%, its worst decline since April of 2009.  The big sell off is believed to have been triggered by fears that some of the smaller nations in Europe that are a part of the Eurozone may default on their...
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Productivity results

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 4, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments Good morning! The Department of Labor released fourth quarter productivity figures this morning.  Productivity in the U.S. rose by 6.2%.  For the whole of 2009 the DoL reported that productivity rose by 5.1%. Analysis: Increases in productivity are my favorite economic statistic.  I consider productivity to provide insight into the ways in which people are learning to do things more...
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3 February 2010: My New Website & Workshops & Book

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 3, 2010 in News & Events | 2 comments Yesterday my new website went live. You can find it at: www.jasonapollovoss.com Long time readers of the blog will deeply appreciate one of the features of the site. Namely, there is a Best of the Blog section, a selection of what I feel are the best, most prescient, most insightful postings of the blog’s history. If you have been recommending the blog to folks and their interest has been...
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Employment situation still treading water

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 3, 2010 in Blog | 1 comment Good morning folks! I hope that this message finds you doing well. That scion of payroll, ADP, tracks unemployment privately, in addition to efforts by the U.S. government. Today, ADP said that the U.S. economy lost 22,000 private sector jobs in January. This figure was slightly better than economists had been expected. However, it still represents a loss of jobs and not the creation of jobs....
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Consumer income exceeds spending (!)

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 1, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments News today from the Commerce Department says that consumer incomes rose 0.4% in December. Yet, despite this, consumer spending only rose 0.2%. I consider this to be good long-term news. Analysis: Quick, what got us into the economic debacle of the past two years? Many might say excess mortgage lending. But I would argue that the real cause was the United States’ overuse and misuse of debt...
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