http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-firms-post-fastest-growth-in-years-ism-2014-08-05?dist=afterbell



WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. service companies in areas such as retail, health care and entertainment expanded in July at the fastest pace in nine years, offering more evidence that the economy is shifting into a stronger phase of growth.

The services side of the U.S. economy, including government, employs about 85% of all American workers. Retail, health care and the restaurant business have been among the fastest growing over the past few years.

At the same time, though, U.S. manufacturers are also experiencing a resurgence and the construction industry is also growing at a steady clip as well. The ISM’s manufacturing index rose in July at the sharpest clip since April 2011, the nonprofit agency reported last week.

With nearly every sector of the U.S. economy showing improved sales, companies are hiring at a faster rate than any time since before the recession began. The U.S. had generated 200,000 jobs or more for seven straight months, the best stretch of hiring since 1997.

“Business has been strong this summer after a late start due to the poor spring weather,” said an executives at a wholesale-trade company. And an executive at an information-oriented firm said the “second half of the year is looking promising for increased orders versus last year.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/7-reasons-the-us-economy-is-rock-solid-2014-08-04?dist=afterbell




The much-anticipated jobs report for July missed the mark, but there is no reason to be concerned. Long-term labor trends are improving, and economic indicators continue to point higher.

So it’s worth remembering that there isn’t a firm link between economic growth and a rising stock market. Regardless, it is undeniably good for America and U.S. investors to see the economy back on firm footing.

And if you’re still not convinced the U.S. economy is doing well, here’s a short list of reasons that investors and consumers can be confident that the U.S. economy is rock solid:

1. Job market continues to improve: Sure, the latest jobs numbers showed an increase to headline unemployment rate. That’s a bit disappointing because June’s reading of 6.1% showed the lowest level since September 2008, however the 6.2% reading remains the lowest since October 2008. That’s hardly a mammoth change. Furthermore, critics who say the decline in joblessness is because of folks leaving the labor force should note that the labor participation rate actually ticked up slightly.

2. Hope for long-term unemployed: The long-term unemployment rate has finally shown signs that it is declining in earnest. According to a recently released report from the Federal Reserve , the long-term unemployment rate has fallen 0.5 percentage points since the end of 2013, accounting for “almost the entire decline” in the headline unemployment rate. At the same time, the labor participation rate has remained unchanged — so no grumbling about how the shift has been caused by folks dropping out of the workforce, please.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/08/04/expanded-jobless-benefits-prevented-more-than-1-million-foreclosures/

Rather than shoving jobless homeowners through underperforming federal programs that aim to reduce mortgage payments, new research suggests a simpler solution to support troubled families: Give them more money.

By helping families make their debt payments, expanding unemployment-insurance benefits cut the likelihood of mortgage delinquency, and prevented about 1.4 million foreclosures between 2008 and 2012, a team of researchers at the Federal Reserve and Northwestern University wrote in a report titled “Positive Externalities of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Consumer Credit.”

“This finding implies that unemployment insurance played an important role in preventing mortgage default during the Great Recession, despite neither being targeted at mortgage borrowers nor being promoted as a housing policy,” according to the working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based organization.



Those 1.4 million avoided foreclosures (the paper’s Table VII shows the annual number of prevented foreclosures) represented a large chunk of distressed properties during that time period. About 5 million foreclosures were completed between 2008 and 2012, according to data from CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif.-based analysis firm.

There were other benefits from jobless benefits, too, researchers found. Banks who saw a lower default risk expanded credit access. Mortgage investors lost less than they otherwise would have. Local governments took a smaller hit.

Also, more owners hanging onto their properties meant that homes stood a better chance of not falling into disrepair, which in turn would have sunk property values in their neighborhoods.

“Policies improving borrowers’ ability to pay can be effective in reducing delinquency risk, even among those with incentive to strategically default,” researchers wrote. “[Unemployment-insurance] extensions during the Great Recession created a substantial welfare gain, especially in light of evidence that the extensions created minimal distortions to job search.”