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Econ News You Can Use
Category: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
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New data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) today shows positive real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2023. The BEA estimates that real GDP grew at a 2.0% annual rate in the first quarter. This means three straight quarters of growth, even while economists have been bracing for recession as the Federal…
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Real GDP grew at a robust 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the advance estimate from the BEA. Combined with growth from the first three quarters, this means 5.7% for the entire year 2021. The graph below shows that real GDP is now almost all the way back to its pre-COVID path.…
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The latest jobs report brings news of lower unemployment and a growth in jobs in August. The unemployment rate for August, ticked down to 5.2% and nonfarm employment increased by 235 thousand jobs. In normal times, this would be great news. But these are not normal times. We can't celebrate over this news because it…
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For the first time since 2014, real GDP in the U.S. grew at 3% or better for two consecutive quarters. This is based on the advanced estimate for real GDP growth for the third quarter of 2017 released today by the BEA. This is a positive sign especially considering that real GDP per capita since…
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GDP growth continues to disappoint. Today's advance estimate from the BEA pegs real GDP growth at just 1.22% in the second quarter. Further, the new report revises the first quarter rate down to just 0.8 percent. Ooof. The graph below shows quarterly growth rates in real GDP since the beginning of 2006. Before…
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A first glance at last week's jobs report might lead you to believe that all is well in the U.S. economy – and perhaps that is true. But there are recurring indications that some long-term negative trends may persist. Let's start with the good news. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent, the lowest level…
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This morning, the BEA released the Advance Estimate of GDP for 2015, and boy is it disappointing. Keep in mind that this estimate is early and will be revised over the next few months. But still, 0.7% growth for the fourth quarter is positively pedestrian. In addition, with all four quarters now in, the overall…
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Should we ditch macroeconomics or perhaps reduce it to two weeks? In a recent blog post, Noah Smith argues that most of the material in a Principles of Macroeconomics class isn’t really necessary. After teaching macro principles to more than 1,000 students per year since 2003, it is easy for me to find the blind…
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The latest GDP release from the BEA estimates that U.S.real GDP grew at 1.5% in the third quarter of 2015. This is just a mediocre growth rate but revisions to second quarter data have now increased the final growth estimate to a robust 3.9 percent. Recall that inventory is part of investment expenditures in…
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Do you think it is hard to find a job in the United States? Try looking in Spain, where youth (15-24 years old) unemployment rates have exceeded 50% since 2012. The figure below shows youth unemployment for both Spain and the United States beginning in 1995. Even when Spain was experiencing strong economic growth from…
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