ECONOMY AND WAGES

A Wall Street Journal article in Real Time Economics (June 11) begins with the sentence: The U.S. Economy contracted 0.7% in the first quarter [of 2015]. Or did it?*

Not surprisingly there is a problem in collecting the appropriate information in a large and complex economy, and, apparently, consumers spent more at retailers and on medical care than previously thought.  Even the revised numbers are not very exciting.  J.P Morgan Chase thinks the economy "only" went down 0.2%.  A group called Macroeconomic Advisers thinks the quarter was flat.  The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis will give its estimate on June24.  Each estimate may be more accurate than the last one because of the time to accumulate more information.

At the same time, a Wall Street Journal blog says that wages and benefits may be growing faster than we think.**

*http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/11/reports-of-the-u-s-economys-contraction-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/?mod=djemRTE
**
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/10/are-wages-and-benefits-growing-faster-than-we-think/?mod=djemRTE_h