Signs of A Recovery?

Australia's employment was up, unexpectedly, in March and the unemployment rate fell from 5.7 percent to 5.4 percent.

Rupert Murdock keeps pace of the world economy by monitoring revenues from his vast media enterprises around the world. These are heavily dependent on advertising which is cyclical like capital expenditures. At a News Corp. earnings call, he said, "I am not an economist…but it is increasingly clear that the worst is over….As you know, I have been uncharacteristically pessimistic in recent calls, though I would argue that it was a well-founded concern. But there are emerging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous decline are done and that revenues are beginning to look healthier.” Peter Kafka's whole posting is worth reading.


Nina Koeppen and Jonathan House report in the Wall Street Journal, "More European indicators are beginning to show some tentative signs of the recession easing in the second quarter, with German business sentiment leading the way.

"German business confidence improved at the start of the second quarter, after hitting a record low in March, indicating that the worst of the economic slump may soon be over, a survey from the German Ifo Institute showed Friday.

"The Ifo business climate index rose to 83.7 from a revised 82.2 in March, which marked the lowest level since records began in 1991."

"