FEATURED POST
January 13, 2025
The skills opportunity
Job reports move markets because they’re the strongest signal economists have about the strength of the U.S. economy. But worker productivity is just as important to economic growth; it’s just harder to measure or capture.
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May 24, 2021
MainStreet Macro: The Retail Remix
Last week we explained how to understand the economy in five easy steps. This week we focus on the most important indicator to watch – consumer spending. The great reopening has many of us dusting off our credit cards to shop (I’ll be honest, I never stopped). Yet the retail landscape is being transformed. Trends in place before COVID-19 accelerated during the pandemic and are remixing retail into the future.
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May 17, 2021
MainStreet Macro: How are we doing? Unpacking the economy in five easy steps
Fourteen months after the pandemic’s initial assault, Main Streeters want to know how we’re doing.
The answer isn’t simple. There’s a deluge of data, but depending on where you look, you could find different answers.
So how are we doing – really? Here are five things to watch to get a sense of the economy’s overall well-being, ranked from important to very important.
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May 10, 2021
MainStreet Macro: Job Switching
Typically, when the economic growth starts to accelerate like it is now, workers dust off their resumes and look for better options. The economy grew a vigorous 6.4% annualized in the first three months of the year, and is poised to grow by double digits in the current quarter. Yet recent data shows that even as the economy has improved, employees are reluctant to seek out new opportunities. In this week’s blog, we discuss the analysis conducted on 18 million workers to measure the financial returns to job switching.
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May 3, 2021
MainStreet Macro: The Global Workforce Speaks
We’ve spent much of MainStreet Macro’s first four months tracking the economic recovery and unprecedented changes in employment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, we shift gears to hear from workers themselves about how their attitudes and lives have adjusted.
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April 26, 2021
MainStreet Macro: Three lessons from history
This is a busy week for the economy. Not only are key members of the Federal Reserve meeting to discuss the hot topic of inflation, we’ll also get a report card on economic growth in the first quarter. What happens next for the economy is uncharted. We’ve never seen such a collision of low interest rates, massive fiscal stimulus, easy money and wealth disparity. We don’t know if the vigorous pace of growth will continue in the second half of the year, or even whether all sectors can recover if it does.
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April 19, 2021
MainStreet Macro: Why can’t we just print more money?
This week, I have a timely and thoughtful question from a 10-year old viewer, Caleb: “Ms. Nela, could you share with us why we can’t just print more money to fix the economy?”
Well, Caleb, that’s a very good question, one that’s of particular importance to Main Street right now.
When it comes to printing money and fixing the economy, there are three things to know.
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April 12, 2021
MainStreet Macro: Is the glass half full or half empty?
by Nela Richardson, Ph.D
We’ve seen a lot of good news on the economic front, from local jobs to global growth. Yet many Main Streeters are still living with the pandemic’s destruction to their businesses, jobs and health. This begs the question: Is the economic recovery a glass half full or half empty?
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April 5, 2021
MainStreet Macro: Location, location, location (and jobs)
by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.
Ask any real estate pro and they'll tell you there are three essentials to selling a property – location, location, location. Well, that may be changing. Location trends long in the making accelerated over the past year due to the pandemic and the newfound mobility of the workforce will have an impact on the housing market. Last month, the economy recovered 916,000 jobs, winnowing away our deficit of 8.4 million jobs, with the bulk of them in services. As we look forward to more hiring in coming months, let’s dig into how the geography of work--and life--is changing.
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