U.S. Economic News
September 25, 2017
U.S. Economic Indicators
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index fell from +0.03 (revised) in July to -0.31 in August. The production and personal consumption & housing components made negative contributions while the sales and employment components contributed positively. Chicago Fed Report
U.S. News
Eric Morath of the Wall Street Journal writes that real wages in the U.S. have been rising due to persistently low inflation. While real wages have climbed more quickly over the past decade than in previous economic cycles, Morath cautions that most of the gains have been concentrated in the upper income brackets, while those in the lower brackets have experienced slight wage declines. WSJ
The Financial Times reports that many U.S. cities are in dire need of infrastructure investment or else they risk choking off economic growth. Experts say that as urban centers expand and congestion worsens, aging infrastructure require renovations and that the federal government should take the lead on investing. FT
According to the Wall Street Journal, a new study shows that the current economic expansion has spread unevenly, lifting certain cities while leaving other areas of the U.S. behind. The study shows that many formerly prosperous industrial areas of the U.S. still have not yet recovered all of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, though this struggle has been masked by the recovery of many major cities. WSJ