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ADP is now using a new jobs collecting methodology to calculate the numbers on jobs added. The October 2012 number of 158,000 jobs added uses this new methodology. ADP is now partnering with Moody's Analytics. Analysts say it would require several months of data to get a good reading.

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This article in the Economist magazine points out that official data do not accurately show the health of the banking sector, with large number of bad loans at smaller banks. Bank shares it points out are priced in a way that reflects bad loans at 5-10% of loans.

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An analyst survey by MacroMarkets shows home prices as measured by the S&P Case-Shiller national index will decline by 1.4% in 2010, then increase in 2011 by 1.3% and 2.7% in 2012. At this time weaker jobs data are making analysts cautious about a rebound in the housing market.

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India's central bank, the RBI plans to cut interest rates to stimulate growth in the economy in April 2012. Interest rates are at 8.5% and a cut of a quarter to half percentage point is expected. Inflation data shows year over year wholesale price increase of 6.89% in March 2012.

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Senior NSA officials say after six months of investigation the government may never know the extent of the data breach in the Snowden case and what documents were taken. The NSA faclity in Hawaii where Snowden worked was not equiped with software that monitored access to documents by employees and contractors.

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Harris was asked a question about immigration at the Oprah Winfrey event, how she would secure the Border. Harris said- "So it’s a wonderful and important question. You know, my background was as a prosecutor and I was also the elected attorney general for two terms of a border state. So this is not a theoretical issue for me. This is something I’ve actually worked on. I have prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings. I take very seriously the importance of having a secure border and ensuring the safety of the American people. Sadly, where we are now can be traced most recently back to the fact that when the United States Congress, members of Congress, including some of the most conservative Republicans, came up with a border security bill. And here’s what that border security bill would have done. It would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border. Let me tell you, those border agents are working around the clock. It would have just been about giving them some support and relief, which is probably why the border agents actually endorsed the bill. It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl. And I’m looking at people from all over the country here. So I don’t need to tell the folks who are watching this what fentanyl has done to families, to kids in our country, and the need to take seriously stemming the flow coming into our country and addressing that extraordinary and tragic issue in terms of its effect. The bill would have allowed us to have more resources to prosecute transnational criminal organizations. And it would have been part of the solution. And Donald Trump called up those folks and said, don’t put that bill on the floor for a vote. He blocked the bill. And you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. And he has put his personal political security before border security. Because understand, even in the intervening months, what that bill would have done to give support to folks who care about this issue. And this, again, gets to the point about what does leadership really look like? ...

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Data collected by the Aerial Measuring System from American flights over the Fukushima nuclear plant show that radioactive contamination has not spread beyond a 19 mile range from the plant. The system uses a plane and a helicopter flying over the site with equipment taking measurements in the immediate vicinity of the plant.

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The median household headed by a person 60-62 years of age with a 401(k) account has less than one fourth of what is needed to maintain a standard of living at retirement, according to data from the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for the Wall Street Journal. Including Social Security and any pensions or other savings, the savings are way short of what is needed for retirement. Households used in this data had a median income of $87,700 in 2009. The 85% needed for a decent standard of living upon retirement is $74,545. Social Security would provide an estimated 40% of pre-retiremment income, or $35,080 for that median family, leaving $39,465 that has to come from other sources. The median 401(k) account has $149,400 which would only provide a fixed income each year of $9,073- only one fourth of the $39,465 needed. To generate that $39,465, households have to have $636,673, and only 8% of American households approaching retirement have that amount. Half of the families have other pension income of $26,500 a year, which added to $9,073 in 401(k) income gets the total income up to $35,573. Other studies using different data by the Employee Benefit Research Institute show results that are largely similiar. The Employee Benefit Research Institute, is supported by 401(k) providers. Its estimate of the median person is based on individuals in the 60's who have worked at the same company for more than 30 years. This data shows an estimated median person having about $158,754, not much different from the Fed data. Why is the amount in most Americans 401(k) savings so low? There was a mistaken sense that a 6% annual contribution, with a 3% company match would be enough. Vanguard Group says the current median amount that people contribute is 9%, counting the employer contribution. Now Vanguard is advising people to contribute more, 12 to 15%, including the employer contribution. Other problems for the low savings is that saving started late, or contributions were suspended after a job loss, or medical emergencies, other debt. The stock market collapses of 2000-2002 and 2007-2009, added to the problems, by wiping out a portion of the savings. The low rate of interest on savings for most of the last decade hurt even conservative investors and lowers the kind of retirement account income used by seniors. The way people are coping with this is to work longer, in some cases into the 70's, cutting down on spending for food, travel, and taking greater risks for higher returns, risks that could make the situation worse....

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The Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific aid bills are passed in the House of Representatives with 316-94 vote on April 19, 2024. Vote rule set with support of Democrats made a simple majority vote sufficient to  pass. It was a significant win for both parties as 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voted for the bills. 55 Republicans and 39 Democrats voted against. It was as Speaker Johnson had said earlier for each Congressman to vote his conscience. Speaker Johnson said it was the best possible bill "we could get under the circumstances." He said if this wasn't done then Democrats would have bypassed Republican leaders and forced their own package of bills through the House. As a nod to the former president $60 billion in aid to Ukraine has $9.5 billion in forgivable economic loans. Overall similar to what Democrats had passed in the Senate over a month earlier. “I hope at the end we can take care of our responsibilities. Ukrainians desperately need lethal aid right now. I mean we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to roll through another country.” - Mike Johnson, Speaker ...

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The US Senate filibuster rule that requires 60 votes for the budget to pass is a relic of the civil rights days, today it prevents Republicans from ending the shutdown by majority vote. Republicans used it when Democrats controlled the House and Senate and Senate Majority Leader Thune does not want to drop the filibuster as it acts to ensure no hasty legislation or budget is passed without some form of overall consensus. It also means that situations such as a government shutdown can happen when the opposition party in the Senate uses it to make it demands be met. In this case Democrats Schumer and Jeffries are asking Republicans to include money for subsidies for the Obama Affordable Care Act enrollees- about 22 million people signed up for this part of the ACA to receive generous subsidies for healthcare. These subsidies are not part of the Big Beautiful Bill of DJT that passed Congress and was signed into law. Unions and airline executives are calling on Democrats to end the shutdown as it disrupts air traffic at airports, and leads to cuts in SNAP and other benefits, and to lack of pay checks for government employees. ...

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Researchers at Beihang University and Tsinghua University in Beijing studied how temperatures and relative humidity affected the natural transmission of coronavirus in 100 cities across China, The looked at data on January 21, 22 and 23, before Chinese authorites stopped its spread. They calculated that the infection was more contagious in northern China, with temperatures and relative humidity low, than among the cities along China's warmer and more humid south east coast. Their conclusion- high temperature and high relative humidity significantly reduce the transmission of coronavirus. The researchers are funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Researchers at the Institute of Virology, University of Maryland, have found that the consistently similar weather across the Northern Hemisphere between 30 degrees latitude and 50 degrees latitude north, running through China to South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, France, provides temperatures of between 5 and 11 degrees Celsius (41 to 51 degree Fahrenheit, with relative humidity between 44% to 84% and low specific and absolute humidity. The conditions in which the coronavirus thrives.  ...

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A report published by Capital Economics of Toronto, based on Labor Department data, shows the U.S. is not adding the kinds of jobs with the pay, benefits and hours of the 8.75 million jobs that disappeared during the recession. Labor Department data support this analysis. The number of food preparation and serving workers are expected to grow by 394,000 by 2018, but the pay is only $16,430 for these jobs. The good well paying jobs are continuing to be lost. Large employers such as Lowe's home improvement chain is eliminating 1700 managers, and adding 10,000 weekend sales positions and new assistant store manager positions. This use of parttime workers also reduces income levels of workers. The impact of this is to limit the consumer spending. As local government is shrinking from budget cuts, better paying jobs are being lost in state and local government, and workers are earning less in the new jobs that do similiar work.

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U.S. stocks were trading at 22.7 times the total earnings of the companies in the index in March 2013, averaged over the past 10 years and adjusted for inflation, according to data developed by Yale University economist Robert Shiller. This is closer to the average of 19.5 times adjusted earnings seen in the last 50 years. In 2000 the level reached 44 times adjusted earnings. Using operating earnings according to data developed by Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the S&P 500 is 15.9 times operating earnings in March 2013. This compares to 28.4 times in 2000 and a long term average of 18.8 times. The European markets are about 25% cheaper says Zweig, with European shares for Ireland, Italy, France and the UK trading at less than 15 times the average of their long term adusted earnings after inflation. By comparison Japan is at 19 times long term adjusted earnings.

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The Bank for International Settlements, BIS, considers companies that have interest payments exceeding the earnings before interest and taxes as zombie companies. This report in WSJ cites BIS central bank data showing 10% of European companies, including companies in Italy, Spain, and France are zombie companies. Stefanel, clothing maker, is one of these companies in Italy. This is up from 5.5% in 2007, showing how the financial crisis of 2008 and the aftermath have affected European business.

OECD estimates in Jan. 2017 confirm this showing the figures have tripled since 2007 for Italy and Spain. This misallocation of capital is as much as 20% in Italy.

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Larry Klayman, lawyer and activist, who filed the case heard by Judge Leon challenging the NSA phone record data security surveillance program.

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This interview by Michael Schmidt of the NYT with president Trump shows a more conciliatory mood following the passage of the Republican tax law. Trump says he feels Mueller will treat him fairly but that the investigation will drag along for some time. Trump says this is bad for the country.  On the tax law he says he would have tackled the local and state tax deduction either not touched it or worked out a compromise if Democrats agreed to talk to him about taxes. Democrats he says thought they had McCain's vote when he left for Arizona, yet that did not happen. He says expensing for investing in equipment should unleash growth through new investment in the U.S. On infrastructure he sees a hundred Democrats joining the Republicans in Congress to do a deal. He says Democrats need him for DACA on the Dreamers issue, and he will work with them.  Other topics covered were the election itself which Trump says he fairly won by focussing on the Electoral College and going frequently to small states like Maine, up and down the East Coast knowing he would lose New York. He says there was no collusion with the Russians for his campaign and says it was Democrats who did the collusion. Manafort worked longer for others including Reagan, says Trump, and was with him for only about 4 months. This interview shows a upbeat Trump following the passage of the tax legislation. ...

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To correct misgivings in many quarters about Syrian refugees not finding a haven in Gulf states, this letter from the Cato Institute points out that the population of Syrian refugees living in the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia has gone up by 1.1 million by 2013 from the beginning of the civil war. He cites World Bank data showing 241,000 Syrians living in the Gulf states before the civil war. By 2013 that number is 1.4 million. For Saudi Arabia the figures are up from 111,000 to 1 million.

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Britain's unemployment rate edged up from 8.1% to 8.3%. Youth unemployment- joblessness among young people ages 16-24- went up to 1.02 million in October 2011, the Office of National Statistics reported. This takes youth unemployment up to 21.9% The ONS says that noncomparable and nonseasonally adjusted data show youth unemployment exceeding one million in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

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For Americans who are worried that the new NYSE Euronext-Deutsche Bourse merger will put the stock exchange into German hands, here's a surprising fact. According to the data on the exchange's website US investors own 41% of Deutsche Bourse. Germans own only 17% of Deutsche Bourse. And US investors own the large majority of NYSE shares.

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The 10 year Treasury bond yields went up from 3.0% 3 months ago to 3.78% in April, according to Treasury International Capital data. The Fed is buying Treasurys to keep rates low, but its spending may be creating new worries about inflation. These worries may be pushing rates higher and threaten to choke off a economic recovery.

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Climate change study from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published in Nature magazine retracted in December 2025. The study is an example of how such research when not done right can misrepresent situations leading to policy errors. Policy error under such misrepresentation can lead to errors such as a policy that excludes adjustments and a dual response to climate change and cost of living crisis attacking both on two fronts necessary today so soon after a disastrous pandemic and people living in scarcity not able to meet heating bills. What happened is that the study made predictions for 2100- which is impossible to do. Studied 1600 regions in the world. Showed decline of economic output by 62% in 2100. Did not mention that excluding Uzbekistan would make the reduction in growth 23%. It shows how overzealous work in one direction or the other can actually hurt the fight to address climate change and also tackle everday concerns like cost of living crisis. Recent reports in WSJ show how the approach of single focus has hurt economic growth in Germany and hobbled its industries. Other reports show how deprived and less deprived areas in the UK (also in the US) sit by side showing how decades of neglect of manufacturing and outshoring of factories have destroyed jobs and destroyed communities across Europe and the US, making them open to scourge such as fentanyl in the Nation's neighborhoods, and creating a climate of despair that feeds into other fears. Such as the fears of the surge of illegal migration promoted by traffickers and the influx of drug trafficking gangs in the Nation's neighborhoods. Such reports are then used by the World Bank and the Congressional Budget Office and central banks of 90 counties in the coalition Network for Greening of the Financial System, leading to distortions in policy actions, destroying the social consensus needed among wide sectors of the population in democracies in the EU and US and worldwide to address climate change and cost of living crises.  Leonie Wenz, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany says-“We broadly agree with the issues raised, and have made corrections to the underlying economic data and to our methodology to address them. These changes are too substantial for a correction of the original article in Nature.”   ...

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The 32 billion pound bid by the Hong Kong Exchange for the London Stock Exchange is not likely to be viewed favorably by regulators. There is already a bid for the London Stock Exchange that is being reviewed. As The Times puts it "it provides a stern test of the British government's appetite for foreign acquisition of strategic assets."

The London Stock Exchange is making an all share offer for Refinitiv, with the strategy to build a financial data business. That would make Blackstone and Thomson Reuters major shareholders.  The Hong Kong government owns 6% of the Hong Kong Exchange. 

The London Stock Exchange has a long history and is a strategic asset for Britain so that the Hong Kong bid is seen as a bit strange considering that the strategy is different for Refinitiv.

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Abrams and De Acosta, Bellman of the WSJ look at growth and modernization in India in comparison with China and other countries. GDP per capita would take 10 years to reach the stage at which spending power of the people equals that in China today. At one point in 1980 China and South Korea were closer in GDP per capita than India. It is only now that India is accelerating towards the scale and depth of modernization done in China.  India's growth rate of over 7% is likely to surge after some of the problems in bad loans in the banking sector are cleared up. A wave of technological advances would help accelerate growth. Ease of doing business and foreign investment are on upward trend, for absorbing new technology from advanced countries. A shift to very low prices for data use with rapid development of 4G services is one of the recent achievements. Manufacturing growth remains a challenge to be tackled to create the jobs needed.  Revamping tax structures such as GST and shifting the economy towards use of electronic cash has increased revenues needed to invest in infrastructure, health and education.  As much of the potential for future growth comes from people at the lower income levels, improving social indicators such as sanitation, cleanliness, farmer incomes, universal bank accounts, universal access to health care, are steps that lay the foundation for the future. ...

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Home prices are surging in Australia in 2015, with home prices in Sydney up about 39% since June 2012, according to CoreLogic RP Data. As a multiple of annual income home prices in Sydney are at 9.8, Melbourne 8.7, and Wollongong near Sydney 7.5, compared to 6.1 for New York and 8.5 for London, according to a 2015 affordability survey by Demographia. Australia's surging home prices are happening just as the mining boom that powered its economy is winding down and unemployment is up to 6.1%. Interest rates are down to 2.25%, and low interest rates with speculative purchases are likely to fuel the market up further, say experts. About 40% of home loans approved in Feb. 2015 were to investors, increasing from 31% in 2009, according to official data. According to Australia's Reserve Bank the wealthiest 40% of the population have 75% of the debt. This surge when the economy is feeling the effects of the slowdown in China, and the rest of the world is cutting down on debt, puts Australia in uncertain territory....

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Consumer lending went down by 1.7% in October 2009 according to Federal Reserve data. A WSJ analysis of Fed data shows corporate and consumer credit markets have shrunk by 7% or $1.5 trillion in the 2 years through early November 2009. And ont he other hand the Treasury debt outstanding has gone up quickjly by 40% as the governmet tries to finance large deficits. The market for every type pf bond has recovered from the crisis, and money is going into the markets, but this does not mean more money is flowing into the economy. The tighter lending results in consumers and businesses more reluctant to hire and invest. Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of Pacific Inestment Management Company says this means the US econom will grow at 1.5% to 2% ayear compared to the 3% growth that is typical for healthy growth. Says Erian: "the idea that we have reset to where we came from is false. It is abumpy journeyto anew destination with significant long-term effects."