Year: 2012

For all those busy people who have better things to do than fight the traffic, find a parking space, try on clothes and wait in line to check out, the future of retailing will be spectacular.

The incoming data continue to be disappointing, though the July U.S. payroll gain is encouraging.

The Canadian economy has been growing at a sub-2% pace in 2012, well below last year’s pace. Indeed, growth in the third quarter was a mere 0.6% a.r. and we are forecasting that the final quarter of this year will see real GDP expand only 1.5%.

The Supreme Court ruling upholding the key components of the Obama healthcare plan was a significant legal victory for the President, although his conservative opponents are already calling it a massive middle-class tax increase and are threatening to repeal it.

All around the world, economic activity has been slowing. Acknowledging the disappointing prospects for growth, the Federal Reserve extended its maturity-lengthening bond-purchase program, better known as Operation Twist.

The world is facing a dangerous moment as it awaits the fallout from the Greek election.

I was recently a guest on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”, discussing my views on the European debt crisis and the global economy. With the current concerns in an ever-challenging environment, I thought you might be interested in this recent interview.

Even though several central banks took actions this week to boost growth, the likelihood is that global growth will remain sluggish for some time. The ECB, the Bank of England and the People’s Bank of China either cut rates or injected liquidity.

As a newly appointed member of the Economic Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association (ABA)—comprised of twelve chief economists from among the largest commercial banks in North America – I spent the past two days in Washington, D.C.