Corporate executives spent the last few months of 2012 sounding the alarm over the fiscal cliff, saying that economic uncertainty was forcing them to delay investment plans. But the Fed’s latest analysis of the fourth quarter tells a different story. While the rest of the economy shrank, business investment in equipment and software, a known indicator of corporate spending, soared 12.4 percent in Q4, the third biggest jump since the economic recovery began in 2009. - Read more at The Wall Street Journal
FED RETAINS STIMULUS The Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to continue buying $85 billion a month in government bonds to hold down interest rates and stimulate the economy, after a report showed the economy contracted in the fourth quarter. - Read more at Reuters
FISCAL CONFIDENCE IS DOWN The public is growing increasingly pessimistic about the country’s financial situation. According to the Peterson Foundation’s Fiscal Confidence Index, which measures public opinion about the national debt, the January index sits at 40, with 100 being neutral, meaning the public is extremely negative about the U.S. economy. Sentiment has declined since December, when the Fiscal Confidence Index was 52. - See the index here
