[lbo-talk] Ugly housing starts stat

Jim Westrich westrich at nodimension.com
Wed Apr 20 13:28:07 PDT 2005


Quoting Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>:


> Inflation up, wages stagnant, housing starts down--I'm no economist,
> but the economy looks pretty gruesome to me right now. Doug et al., any
> indicators that point in a happier direction?

I don't think its a "happy" data point but monthly housing starts is based on a survey with a pretty large variance. I would wait a few months before I would make any big predictions based on ANY monthly data let alone a relatively small monthly survey.

BTW, the housing starts were even lower last November and it did not indicate a trend then. But who knows maybe this time will be different?

Jim

"well you've played the performing monkey much too long and you know the organ-grinder's tunes are wrong you pretend to have some kinda control but you'll be out on the street before too long"

--(the late) Frank Tovey, *Liberty Tree*



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