Weekly Economic Update for March 22, 2010 by Pete Mitchell

Inflationary pressures remain weak in this subdued recovery. The Consumer Price Index was flat in February; core CPI rose 0.1%. CPI only advanced 2.1% over the last 12 months of data. Core CPI rose 1.3% in that period, the smallest year-over-year gain in six years. The Federal Reserve forecasts core CPI advancing 1.2% for all of 2010.1,2

March 8, 2010 Weekly Economic Update by Pete Mitchell

The Labor Department reported only 36,000 net job losses last month, so the jobless rate was flat for February, unless you were one of the 36,000 that lost their job, then it was pretty close to 100%. Economists had widely assumed the unemployment rate would inch upward due to winter weather affecting construction and retail industries.1 As I’ve been saying for a while, we are not out of this, not even close.