A
AALARD
Guest
Economic Outlook: A rebalancing act
Anyone who read U.S. economic reports in August needed to keep a bottle of aspirin nearby or suffer the consequences. It was getting at least that grim.
There was no place to turn for a little respite. The economic recovery -- not robust, but it had some traction -- was slipping away and, like a heavy train failing to make it up a hill, vapors were beginning to rise visibly from under spinning steel wheels. Stocks, housing, jobs, manufacturing, retail … nothing appeared unscathed.
In September in New York a sunny summer turned overcast and has remained that way since. The Federal Reserve's light-on-numbers portrait of the economy in September, the so-called "beige book," said "national economic activity continued to rise, albeit at a modest pace."
The Fed noted expansion in manufacturing, but said "hiring remained limited." Consumer spending was "flat to moderately positive," the Fed said.
If you could pin the tail on the donkey here, most would say the soft economy is in need of jobs to put 7.7 million recession-displaced workers back on their feet, so they could start spending again. That "moderately positive" pace of consumer spending needs to change, given consumer spending is frequently said to make up 70 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Is it odd that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is headed to South Korea this weekend for a Group of 20 nations summit with just the opposite plan of attack concerning U.S. consumer spending?
Anyone who read U.S. economic reports in August needed to keep a bottle of aspirin nearby or suffer the consequences. It was getting at least that grim.
There was no place to turn for a little respite. The economic recovery -- not robust, but it had some traction -- was slipping away and, like a heavy train failing to make it up a hill, vapors were beginning to rise visibly from under spinning steel wheels. Stocks, housing, jobs, manufacturing, retail … nothing appeared unscathed.
In September in New York a sunny summer turned overcast and has remained that way since. The Federal Reserve's light-on-numbers portrait of the economy in September, the so-called "beige book," said "national economic activity continued to rise, albeit at a modest pace."
The Fed noted expansion in manufacturing, but said "hiring remained limited." Consumer spending was "flat to moderately positive," the Fed said.
If you could pin the tail on the donkey here, most would say the soft economy is in need of jobs to put 7.7 million recession-displaced workers back on their feet, so they could start spending again. That "moderately positive" pace of consumer spending needs to change, given consumer spending is frequently said to make up 70 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Is it odd that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is headed to South Korea this weekend for a Group of 20 nations summit with just the opposite plan of attack concerning U.S. consumer spending?
