Tim Iacono's Contributions

Given that, up until last weekend, most Americans either weren’t paying attention to what was going on in Washington regarding a government shutdown or had become conditioned to think a last minute deal would get done...

A frightening prospect has developed in just the last week, that is, since the Federal Reserve surprised nearly everyone by announcing it would leave its $85 billion per month money printing effort intact...

The combination of a possible government shutdown one week from today and the debt ceiling debate that will heat up soon afterward appears to be having an impact on the American mood if the latest survey from Gallup is any indication.

Standard & Poor’s reported that U.S. home prices continued to rise at a brisk pace over the summer as the 20-city Case-Shiller Home Price Index jumped 1.8 percent in July and the 10-city index rose even faster, up 1.9 percent.

The Commerce Department reported that housing starts and permits for new construction were less than expected last month, though the weakness was centered in the volatile multi-family home category as single-family home building increased.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 169,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent, however, the underlying details for both data points were far more negative than the data itself.

In this item at the The Economist, the graphics department has updated their global home price data series and interactive charting tools to enable this long-term view of global home prices that, by itself, is pretty interesting.

Amid all the recent housing reports that clearly show a spring buying surge and a slowdown since that time comes this story from Standard & Poor’s that depicts...

The Commerce Department reported that, during the second quarter, the U.S. economy expanded much faster than originally estimated as new data caused the growth rate to be revised up from 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent, well above expectations for a 2.2 percent rate.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index dropped from 85.1 in July to 80.0 in the first of two readings for August, the sharpest decline since last December when a number of budget related issues were weighing on the American mood.

The Labor Department reported that overall consumer prices in the U.S. rose by 0.2 percent from June to July and that the official annual rate of inflation now stands at 2.0 percent, up from just 1.1 percent as recently as three months ago.

The Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales were lower than expected in June, up 0.2 percent after an upwardly revised gain of 0.6 percent in May (note that this data series is adjusted for seasonal variations but not for inflation or population growth).

It will be interesting to see what happens to this Gallup polling data in the months ahead as it appears a top in consumer confidence may already be in.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in July after a downwardly revised gain of 188,000 in June and the jobless rate fell from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent, however...

The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew much faster than expected in the second quarter as real Gross Domestic Product rose at a 1.7 percent annual rate, up from a 1.1 percent rate in the first quarter.

Standard & Poor’s reported that U.S. home prices continued to rise sharply in the spring as the Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index jumped 2.4 percent in May and that home values are up 12.2 percent from a year ago, the fastest pace of appreciation since March 2006.

In this story today, Gallup provides some interesting new polling data on the American mood which appears to have peaked late in the spring and is now faltering.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes came in well below analysts’ estimates, falling 1.2 percent last month from a downwardly revised seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.14 million in May to 5.08 million in June.

This CNN/Money report details how buyers from China are increasingly opting for U.S. real estate, often paying in cash and preferring California to most other states.

Standard & Poor’s reported that U.S. home prices were more than 12 percent higher than a year ago, the fastest annual rate since mid-2006, as the Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index jumped 2.5 percent in April, or 1.7 percent after seasonal adjustments.