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This week, we got a lot of new indicators about the state of the US economy.
The headline: it’s doing pretty well.
Stocks rose on Wall Street after a report showed
that inflation wasn’t as bad as expected last month.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% last month from May, the biggest...
So this week has been a mix of data that’s been surprising
and some that hasn’t been so surprising.
That’s Reed Picker, who leads the US economy team at Bloomberg.
Analysts who anticipated a slight rise in first-time claims for jobless benefits.
Instead, the number has fallen.
Inflation is cooling, consumers are spending,
the job market is showing signs of stability.
But still, the vibes are off.
Consumer sentiment reached a record low in May
and looked only a little bit better by June.
And a Pew survey ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary in July found
that over 50% of Americans expected the economy to get weaker in the coming decade.
There is something particularly unsatisfactory about the economy right now.
Even though unemployment’s not that high,