By all accounts, the performance of the U.S. economy in 2017 was outstanding. There was generally progress on all economic fronts.

In February 1982, the U.S. Department of Commerce joined forces with the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) to develop a new economic indicator called the Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI®.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-making body. Congress has demanded that the FOMC implement policies that would satisfy the so-called dual mandate, which requires the FOMC to strive to maintain both maximum employment and price stability.

Co-authors Ing Cynthia Wu and Fan Dora Xia (Wu-Xia) argue that the federal funds rate, the major monetary policy instrument of the Federal Reserve, might not be what it seems.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently announced the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the final quarter of 2016.  The results announced were not good, but were fully expected.  In this so-called advanced estimate of the nation’s output of goods and services – the first of three estimates to be released over the coming months – the quarter-over-quarter growth rate dropped dramatically from 3.5% in the third quarter to 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2016.