The Euro move next time

At its meeting yesterday the European Central Bank didn’t take any action on slow economic growth in the EuroZone or on an inflation rate so low that it threatens to turn into deflation. But, said bank president Mario Draghi, the ECB is “comfortable with acting next time.”

Initial claims for unemployment bounce back from last week’s scare.

Initial claims for unemployment bounce back from last week’s scare.

Last week the numbers for initial claims for unemployment threw a scare into the financial markets and economists when they showed a strong bump upwards to 344,000 new claims filed for the week. The likelihood was that this was just the usual Easter-related noise in the data but investors and traders could not absolutely rule out the possibility that the labor market had worsened.

For once, unambiguous good news on the U.S. economy

Tighter credit policies have been a drag on the U.S. economic recovery. But according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent survey, banks eased lending policies for commercial and industrial loans in the first quarter. For individuals, the Fed found easing in policies for consumer credit card and auto loans and a mixed picture for prime mortgages and home equity lines of credit