Economics

New blog – attestationupdate.com

I started a new blog today, Attestation Update, www.attestationupdate.com. It will provide news and updates to the CPA community on audits, reviews, and compilations.  Some posts are only at the new site and some attestation posts will be left here. In the future, posts that are focused more on the CPA community will be at the new site.

Why make this change? I realized there are very two distinct audiences for my writing:  the non-profit community and CPAs. While there is a lot of overlap, particularly with the CPA firms in Southern California with whom I count as friends at the same time as competitors, the interests are very different.  Thus, two blogs.  This will allow for more focused attention by time constrained readers.  Enjoy them both!

Jim Ulvog

Easy-listening explanation of Quantitative Easing

Quantitative Easin’ is a new song in easy listening style that explains what the Fed is planning for the very near future.  Fun explanation.  Watch out for the depressing graphs though.

The singer, Curtis Threadneedle, is on facebook here.

Update: Fed announced the QE2 will be for $600,000,000,000 spread in $75B purchases per month of longer-term treasuries. Typo in title of this post corrected.

Jim Ulvog

Rapping Economists debate how to improve the economy? Rapping? On economics?

As news reports indicate the Fed plans a half trillion dollar quantitative easing, it is a good time to revisit the Hayek and Keynes debate.  If you would like a rap explanation, check this out: “Fear the Boom and Bust”. Yes, Hayek presented in rap. (more…)

Jim Ulvog

10 leading causes of death in 1850 and 2000

Fascinating display at the Reuben Fleet Science Museum in San Diego listing the top 10 causes of death in 1850, 1900, and 2000 caught my interest while on vacation.  Focus of their discussion is on the change over time, particularly the change from infectious disease to other causes.  Look at this list (more…)

Jim Ulvog

The recession officially ended in June 2009

The people who make the official call for the start and end point of recessions, which is the National Bureau of Economic Research, announced on September 20 that the recession officially hit bottom in June 2009.  We need to look at what that actually means.  The bottom point of the economic cycle is considered the end of a recession.  The Bureau calculated the low point, or the trough, was in June last year.  Since then the economy has been recovering, although slowly. (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Data on unemployment & GDP changes available on-line

If you are so interested, lots of economic data is available from the federal government on-line.  Two items of interest to me are unemployment data and GDP changes.  Those are fairly major pieces of the economic picture.

Unemployment data:  Alternative measures of labor utilization – table A-15 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Of particular interest are U-3 and U-6. The most quoted information is the U-3 measure, which is a calculation of unemployed people as percent of the civilian labor force.  This is the official number you hear about. The broader data is the U-6 measure. That is based on the total number unemployed plus people only able to work part-time, plus people who want to work but have dropped out of the market.  Or at least that is my casual interpretation of the data.

Changes in GDP:  Percent change from preceding period in real Gross Domestic Product – table 1.1.1 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

There are several frequently requested tables from the BEA.

http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Popular=Y

Jim Ulvog