This chart shows the Top 20 largest mergers and acquisitions since 1998.

Chart Source: Visual Economics

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Here is an interesting chart from visualeconomics.com that shows the comparisons between countries and their healthcare cost. Its easy to see that U.S is the largest spender in healthcare.

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Brief rundown;

• Retail sales increased 0.3% from January to February
• Jan was reported at $354.3 billion
• February was reported at $355.5 billion

U.S Census Bureau Report:

“The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $355.5 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 3.9 percent (±0.5%) above February 2009.”

This graph shows the monthly retail sales.

Graph Source: www.calculatedriskblog.com

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The graph below shows the stock market’s growth, stagnation, and decline with respect to U.S Presidents.

You be the judge!

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The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

” In the week ending Feb. 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 496,000, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 474,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 467,750.”

The 4 week moving averaging of unemployment claims is at its lowest level since September 2008. However, that figure is still high and continued job losses may still be on the horizon.

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The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

” In the week ending Feb. 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 473,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 442,000. The 4-week moving average was 467,500, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 469,000.”

The 4 week moving averaging of unemployment claims is at its lowest level since September 2008. However, that figure is still high and continued job losses may still be on the horizon.

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Press release from the Federal Reserve: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Industrial production increased 0.9 percent in January following a gain of 0.7 percent in December. Manufacturing production rose 1.0 percent in January, with increases for most of its major components, while the indexes for both utilities and mining advanced 0.7 percent. At 101.1 percent of its 2002 average, output in January was 0.9 percent above its year-earlier level. The capacity utilization rate for total industry rose 0.7 percentage point to 72.6 percent, a rate 8.0 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009.
Note: Since December of 2008 this is the highest level for industrial production. However, still far below pre-recession levels.

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Press Release from BLS

The unemployment rate fell from 10.0 to 9.7 percent in January, and nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged (-20,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction and in transportation and warehousing, while temporary help services and retail trade added jobs.

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The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

“In the week ending Jan. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 480,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 472,000. The 4-week moving average was 468,750, an increase of 11,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 457,000.”

The 4 week moving averaging of unemployment claims is at its lowest level since September 2008. However, that figure is still high and continued job losses may still be on the horizon.

Source Chart: calculatedriskblog.com

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The White House released their annual budget with economic assumptions.

Brief Rundown (Refer to Page 13 of report):

GDP Growth:

• 2010 –> 2.7%
• 2011 –> 3.8%
• 2012 –> 4.3%
• 2013 –> 4.2%

Unemployment:

• 2010 –> 10%
• 2011 –> 9.2%
• 2012 –> 8.2%
• 2013 –> 7.3%

The chart below is from www.calculatedriskblog.com. The blue line is historical monthly unemployment rate, and the red line is the White House projections.

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