Friday, April 6, 2007

Dallas Fed Report On the Economy

The Dallas Fed has released a report called National Economic Update. I think it's a very good piece on the economy's current status.

Here's the short version. Overall investment is down. Yet job growth in service industries is providing the consumer with enough money to continue spending. So long as job growth and wages continue to increase, the chances of a recession are low.

However, we don't know if the drop in investment and mortgage market problems will spill over into the larger economy.

The last chart deals with manufacturing jobs and whether the drop in durable goods orders will lead to cuts in manufacturing jobs. Here is a counter-argument. Manufacturing employment hasn't grown during this expansion. That could mean there just isn't that much fat to cut from manufacturing payrolls. Here's a chart of seasonally adjusted manufacturing employment for the last 7 years.

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The following charts detail the Dallas Feds report.

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