Pension Pulse

Jeff Cox of CNBC reports, The US economy suddenly looks like it's unstoppable : In the face of persistent fears that the world could be facing a trade war and a synchronized slowdown, the U.S. economy enters June with a good deal of momentum. Friday's data provided convincing evidence that domestic growth remains intact even if other developed economies are slowing. A better-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report coupled with a convincing uptick in manufacturing and construction activity showed that the second-half approaches with a tailwind blowing. "The fundamentals all look very solid right now," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC. "You've got job growth and wage gains that are supporting consumer spending, and tax cuts as well. There's a little bit of a drag from higher energy prices, but the positives far outweigh that. Business incentives are in good shape." The day started off with the payrolls report showing a gain of 223,00...

Jeff Cox of CNBC reports the stock market just set another record, this one going back to 1972: The seemingly unstoppable U.S. stock market continues to set new records, with the latest standard a trend that hasn’t been beaten since 1972. One gauge closely watched by traders is where the market is in relation to its moving averages, which track the market’s performance over various time periods. In this case, FOREX.com looked at how many times the S&P 500 has closed below its 10-day moving average over the past 70 days, a time frame used because it entails the time since the Federal Reserve started expanding the bond holdings on its balance sheet. The result is that the index has had just five such closings over the period, the lowest going back to 1972, or some 48 years, FOREX.com said, citing data from Quantitative Edges. Fed officials have insisted that its latest round of bond buying is not like the quantitative easing it instituted during and after the fin...

Jeff Cox of CNBC reports, Economic growth for second quarter is on track to double 2017's full-year pace : The U.S. economy is heating up as the year progresses, with the second quarter pointing towards some of the gaudy growth that President Donald Trump predicted when he was running for president. In its most recent forecast, the Atlanta Fed said the three-month period is tracking at a 4.6 percent gain, exactly double the 2017 rate as well as the 2018 first-quarter number. If accurate, the growth rate would easily outdistance the 3.1 percent gain for 2017 in the same three-month period. While running for office, Trump promised his policies would push the economy towards growth he estimated as high as 6 percent . The Atlanta district raised its forecast following a report Friday morning indicating a stronger than expected inventory build that raised the forecast one-tenth of a point . Other trackers indicate stronger growth as well, though the central bank's tra...

Megan McArdle of Bloomberg reports, We Are All Going to Pension Hell : One of the most startling moments of the Detroit bankruptcy was when a judge stepped in to stay the bankruptcy at the behest of the city’s public sector unions…and then said that she was going to tell the president about this. “It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,” the judge told assistant Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.” Aquilina said she would make sure President Obama got a copy of her order. "I know he’s watching this,” she said, predicting the president ultimately will have to take action to make sure existing pension commitments are honored. Aside from turning President Obama into a quasi-mystical entity who is apparently sacred party to all transactions involving any government, anywhere, this was a veiled confession that she did not have the power to order what...