This blog post accompanies the SDPR Morning Macro segment that airs on Monday, January 13. Earlier this month, the American Economic Association (AEA) held its annual meeting—a three-day conference during which hundreds of speakers present their detailed economic analyses of myriad social science issues.  Each year, the AEA annual meeting is held in conjunction […]

  This blog post accompanies the SDPR Morning Macro segment that airs on Monday, December 16. Last Friday, December 13th, the U.S. Census Bureau reported its advanced estimates for retail and food-services sales for November 2019.  The report underwhelmed, signaling lower-than-expected sales during a crucial holiday-shopping month.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “Consumers held […]

During this holiday season, Morning Macro will air on December 16th and January 13th.   The spring-2020 tentative schedule is the following: Monday, January 27th Monday, February 3rd Monday, March 2nd Monday, March 16th Monday, March 30th Monday, April 13th Monday, April 27th   All programs air on South Dakota Public Radio during In the […]

  This blog post accompanies the SDPR Morning Macro segment that airs on Monday, December 2. Interest rates attract enormous attention in the financial press, and no wonder: credit—and, so, the cost of financing credit—supports many of the economic activities in which households, firms, and governments around the world engage.  In this regard, the U.S. […]

  This blog post accompanies the SDPR Morning Macro segment that airs on Monday, November 18. The U.S. economy has been in the expansion phase of its business cycle since the second quarter of 2009—the end of the Great Recession a decade ago.  An expansion is one of four so-called phases of a business cycle; the other […]

  This blog post accompanies the SDPR Morning Macro segment that airs on Monday, November 4. Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut its target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter of one percent; the range is now 1.5 to 1.75 percent.  This was the third rate cut since July.  The […]