Economics Update

The Bank of England has decided to hold interest rates steady. It's not like they had much of a choice. Inflation is heating up, and they are in the middle of a house bubble collapse that rivals ours, so doing nothing was the only option.

If they raised rates, they make the housing crash even worse, if they lower rates, inflation gets worse.

Their inaction appears to have strengthened the dollar, since it points towards few hikes by the European Central Bank too.

In employment, initial applications for unemployment are down from last week (it's a noisy measure), but it's still much worse than last year, and teen summer employment is the worst in 40 years, "If the average holds, total summer hiring in May, June, and July would be about 1.2 million, which would be the smallest gain in teen summer employment since 1958."

In energy, retail gasoline prices fell a bit, but crude oil spiked above $140 again, because of tensions in Nigeria and the US and Iranian saber rattling.

In real estate, mortgage rates are a bit higher this week.