Brazil cuts interest rates again–and probably for the last time; will it be enough to ignite growth?

Yesterday, August 29, Brazil central bank reduced its benchmark Selic interest rate by another half a percentage point to 7.5%. Data that arrived in the days before the central bank’s latest move, as if on cue, show that maybe—maybe–the government’s tax cuts and the bank’s interest cuts are starting to work

The great U.S. debt deleveraging continues

The first revision to second quarter U.S. GDP growth out this morning shows the economy growing at a 1.7% annual rate instead of the 1.6% rate in the preliminary report. Nothing to get excited about—except that other data this morning show that the U.S. economy continues to repair the damage inflicted by the global financial crisis.