Latest Articles

California Foreclosures and Notices of Defaults are Giving Mixed Signals

Dan Hamilton & Mary Hanley The January 27, 2010 DataQuick press release shows that California Notices of Default (NOD’s) fell from 111,689 in third quarter of 2009 to 84,568 in the fourth quarter of 2009. […]

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Targeting Nominal GDP, Purchasing Homes, and Economic Recovery: A Reply

Bill Watkins & Dan Hamilton On January 26th, the blogger named Effective Demand commented on our January 25-th entry “Targeting Nominal GDP, Purchasing Homes, and Economic Recovery”. We thank you for your comment. We agree […]

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Fourth Quarter GDP

We are thrilled to see the first estimate of the 4th quarter GDP come in way above our forecast, but we wish we had forecast the change. We do expect to see the initial estimate […]

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Targeting Nominal GDP, Purchasing Homes, and Economic Recovery

Bill Watkins and Dan Hamilton Scott Sumner maintains a blog in which he has argued that the FED should not target interest rates, but instead target nominal GDP. When the economy experiences a Liquidity Trap, […]

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Central Oregon’s December Jobs Report

The Oregon Employment Department’s Labor Market Information System released December 2009 jobs and employment data for Oregon’s counties today. In most respects, Central Oregon’s labor market is not significantly changed from November, and very close […]

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The December California Jobs Report

The December California jobs report, out today, shows that the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate held steady from November at 12.4 percent. The year-on-year job declines subsided from November’s -4.2 percent to -3.9 percent in December. The […]

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The Oregon December Jobs Report

Today’s Oregon jobs report for December shows mixed results in the State’s job market.  The OES’s Labor Market Information System provided the December estimates for the state this morning and will provide them for Oregon’s […]

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How’s That Recovery Going?

Today’s data releases highlight the challenges facing those who claim we are in a recovery. The December retail sales volume, down 0.3 percent from November, was perhaps the most shocking number to the optimists out […]

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Another Silly Idea from Sacramento

Our governor wants a constitutional amendment to require that 10 percent of state revenues go to higher education. This sounds good, but it really is bad policy in several ways: One of our current problems […]

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The United States December Jobs Report

This morning’s December employment situation report showed certain signs of improvement that do indicate a positive trend. However, the fourth quarter of 2009 ended down, consistent with our forecast. The November jobs number was revised […]

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The Glass-Steagall Act, John McCain, and Robert Scheer

I ran across this Robert Scheer piece in The Nation. Sheer laments the fact that the Obama administration seems determined to not bring back the Glass-Steagall Act, while McCain is trying to reinstate the regulation. […]

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Los Angeles County Job Losses are Less than 1990s

Los Angeles County’s November jobs report showed a moderating unemployment rate of 12.2 percent, down from 12.5 percent in October, due to a decline in the labor force. Payroll job declines improved from 3.8 percent […]

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