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Articles written by Robert Hughes


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  • Robert Hughes.

    Discretionary spending categories drag down May retail sales

    Robert Hughes, American Institute of Economic Research|Updated Jun 23, 2021

    Retail sales and food-services spending fell 1.3% in May following gains in three of the prior four months. The weaker result in May still leaves retail sales at the third highest on record and well above the most recent nine-year trend. From a year ago, retail sales are up 28.1%. Core retail sales, which exclude motor vehicle dealers and gasoline retailers, posted an 0.8% decline for the month, leaving that measure with a 23.8% gain from a year ago. Despite the fall, core ret...

  • Light-vehicle sales return to pre-pandemic range in September

    Robert Hughes, Special to Village News|Updated Oct 16, 2020

    Sales of light vehicles totaled 16.3 million at an annual rate in September, continuing a rebound from the 8.7 million pace in April. The pace of sales in April was the lowest on record since this data series began in 1976 and follows a run of 72 months in the $16 million to 18 million range from March 2014 through February 2020. Unit vehicle sales fell significantly below the range as the 2008-2009 recession began, hitting a low of just 9 million in February 2009. Sales began a slow recovery and returned to the 16-18...

  • Household debt service drops to a record low

    Robert Hughes, Special to Village News|Updated Oct 16, 2020

    Data from the Federal Reserve show the household financial obligations ratio, minimum debt service payments plus other financial obligation payments as a share of disposable income, plunged to an all-time low of 13.64% in the second quarter. Within that measure, the total debt service ratio, minimum debt services payments as a share of disposable income, dropped to 8.69% with mortgage debt service coming in at 3.72% and other consumer debt service requiring 4.97%. However, disposable personal income for the second quarter...