TMFBent (99.85)

Good Economic News?

December 05, 2007 – Comments (3)

Productivity posted a nice Q3 increase, 6.7% biz, 6.3% in nonfarm biz.

Or did it. Those are the quarterly comparisons. Look at the second half of that table and see the real issue, in Y-o-Y figures.

Inflation, anyone? Will Backrub Ben and the Feelgood Fed soothe the markets with more cheap money? Or will they finally find a bit of courage?

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                                                                            Real
                                                               Hourly   hourly     Unit
                        Produc-                          compen-  compen-    labor
Sector                  tivity    Output   Hours     sation   sation     costs
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                   Percent change from same quarter a year ago

Business                 2.9       3.2      0.3        5.9      3.5       3.0
Nonfarm business     2.7       3.2      0.5        5.8      3.3       3.0
Manufacturing           2.8       1.9     -0.8        5.6      3.2       2.8
Durable                    3.9       3.0     -0.9        5.9      3.4       1.9
Nondurable               1.4       0.7     -0.7        5.1      2.7       3.7
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