Productivity

Don't Sweat Tomorrow's Payroll Revisions

Aug 20, 2024 3 min read paid

Tomorrow, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QECW) for the 12 months ended March 2024. These data are used to revise previous payroll employment reports. They come with a lag, but are generally accepted to be more accurate than the initial monthly releases, which were already revised twice. The initial 12-month revisions can be large, recently having swung by more than

Ed Yardeni

Risk On, Risk Off

Aug 1, 2024 2 min read paid

Today was a good day for the diehard hard-landers and the "stag-disinflationists." They're probably high fiving each other. We are in neither camp–we expect a continuation of “immaculate disinflation,” i.e., a growing economy with subdued inflation. We're high fiving over today’s productivity and labor costs report. In any event, bond investors are certainly enjoying themselves; the 10-year yield fell 12 basis

Ed Yardeni

Will The Fed Join The Rate-Cutting Pack Of Central Banks?

Jun 6, 2024 2 min read

US stocks rose to record highs on Wednesday. European stocks did the same today after the ECB lowered its official interest rate to 3.75%, down from a record 4.00%, where it has been since September 2023 and the first cut since 2019. Leading the rate-cutting pack of the major central banks was the People's Bank of China, which lowered its prime rate last year on August

Ed Yardeni

The US Economy Remains Bullish

Jan 25, 2024 2 min read paid

One day, there will be a recession. It just didn't happen in 2022 or 2023, as was widely predicted. The best growth rates in real GDP over this two-year period occurred during the final two quarters of 2023 at 4.9% and 3.3% (chart). Real GDP rose 2.5% during 2023 following 1.9% during 2022. (Several economists got the magnitudes right, but the signs wrong.) We

Ed Yardeni

The Economic Week Ahead: December 4 - 8

Dec 3, 2023 2 min read paid

Ed Yardeni

SLOOS Shows Looser Credit Conditions

Nov 6, 2023 1 min read

The Fed may not be as almighty as Fed officials believe. The FOMC has raised the federal funds rate aggressively by 525bps since March 2022. Their goal was to slow economic growth to subdue inflation. Yet the economy grew rapidly during Q3 and the unemployment rate has remained below 4.0% since February 2022. Nevertheless, inflation has moderated significantly since last summer (chart). Inflation seems to be to be mostly

Ed Yardeni

Productivity Is Making A Comeback!

Nov 2, 2023 2 min read

Today's bond and stock rallies was boosted by Q3's Productivity and Costs report released at 8:30 am. It confirms our view that strong economic growth isn't inflationary if it is driven by productivity growth. Fed officials have been trying to slow the economy down to subdue inflation. Our analysis suggests that they should allow productivity-led growth to flourish because it is the main

Ed Yardeni

Market Call: Investors Are Spooked

Oct 29, 2023 2 min read paid

Halloween is on Tuesday. Investors have been spooked since early August. They are still spooked by the widening federal deficit, partisan gridlock in Washington, sticky inflation, Fed hawkishness, and a world of trouble. They've been reacting to good economic news as though it is bad news since inflation is less likely to moderate if the economy is strong. We don't agree because we think that productivity

Ed Yardeni

Upside Productivity Surprise Subdues Inflation, Maybe

Aug 3, 2023 1 min read

Wow! This morning's Q2 Productivity and Costs report was surprisingly good, but a bit hard to believe. Nonfarm productivity jumped 3.7% q/q (saar) as output increased 2.4% (the same as real GDP), while hours worked fell 1.3% (chart). The decline in hours worked is the first decline since Q2-2020 and was the result of a 1.3% decline in average weekly hours; employment was

Ed Yardeni

Stocks Buoyed By Solid Consumer Indicators

Apr 28, 2023 2 min read paid

The widely anticipated recession is still MIA. That's one reason why stocks have rebounded smartly since October 12, 2022, which was the end of the latest bear market in our opinion. It's hard to have a recession when consumer incomes are rising and they are spending more on both goods and services (chart). Inflation-adjusted incomes are rising because employment gains remain solid. Just as important is

Ed Yardeni

Q4 Productivity & Labor Costs Going Right Way

Mar 2, 2023 2 min read paid

Bond and stock prices opened weak this morning on good news from the labor market. Good news is bad news because the Fed is trying to slow the economy to bring down inflation. So good news increases the risk of higher-for-longer interest rates. The 10-year Treasury bond yield is back above 4.00%. At 4.95%, the 2-year Treasury yield reached levels not seen in more than a decade. The

Ed Yardeni

Some Bad & Good News On Unit Labor Costs

May 5, 2022 1 min read

Contributing to the stock market selloff today was more bad news on the inflation front. Nonfarm business (NFB) productivity dropped 7.5% (saar) during Q1. It wasn’t as bad on a y/y basis, falling just 0.6%. It’s a very volatile series on a q/q basis and even on a y/y basis.

Ed Yardeni

Page 2 of 2