Robert Hughes

In the February 2017 edition of Gold Investor, published by the World Gold Council, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan provided his views on gold. In his interview for Gold Investor magazine, Greenspan makes several very important observations about the economy and the role of gold. First, the risk of inflation is beginning to rise…

Capping off a mostly good week for the economy, economic reports released today show accelerating growth in manufacturing and continuing consumer optimism about the future. Industrial production in the U.S. was unchanged in February following a 0.1 percent decline in January. That headline masks the significant improving trend in manufacturing and mining over the past…

The labor market is gaining strength. The number of open jobs across the economy increased to 5.63 million in January, the ninth highest level on record. The private sector is even more robust with 5.17 million job openings, the fifth highest level on record. Growing confidence in the economy and in the labor market has…

The Federal Reserve raised its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.00 percent.  The move was the third rate increase since December 2015. The current pace of policy normalization remains well below previous tightening cycles. The Summary Economic Projections (SEP), the survey of Fed…

February retail sales and consumer prices rose at a slower pace compared to January. Some analysts have linked the moderation in spending to the delay in tax refunds by the Internal Revenue Service. The deceleration may also be a return to a moderate pace of growth following brisk gains in December and January. Either way,…

In the discussion of prices and inflation, attention usually focuses on the Consumer Price index (CPI) or the Fed’s preferred measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index.  They are designed to measure consumer prices. The Producer Price Index (PPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a much more comprehensive report covering goods…

The February jobs report may not have been the blowout that the ADP report had suggested but the 235,000 rise in payrolls, coming on the heels of a 238,000 increase in January, points to a robust labor market. The combined gains in January and February are the strongest since June and July of 2016. Other…

ADP, a global provider of cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions and widely known for its payroll processing services, released its estimate for February private, nonfarm payroll jobs. The report is issued two days before the national employment situation report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest data from ADP show private nonfarm…

  A large amount of economic data released over the past two days show that the U.S. economy continues to gain momentum, but the overall pace remains moderate. The current expansion is now the third longest in U.S. history, though the average pace of growth during the expansion has been tepid. At the same time,…

  New orders for durable goods jumped 1.8 percent in January following revised monthly declines of 0.8 percent and 4.7 percent in the prior two months. The gain is January was largely a result of enormous increases in both defense and nondefense aircraft orders. Nondefense aircraft orders surged 69.9 percent for the month, while defense…