The drop in taxable retail spending over the past two years in Arizona has been dramatic -- even for a historic slump. Dennis Hoffman, director of the Seidman Research Institute at the W. P.

Politicians and pundits blame sinking workforce participation on discouraged workers exiting the job market, but actually demographics plays a big role.

Fifty-one percent of those polled by the Gallup organization on January 19, 2014 believe that the U.S. economy is getting worse, but four key measures of economic health tell a different story.

James Glassman and Lee Ohanian have very different takes on the current and near-future health of the U.S. economy. Glassman, managing director and senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., says that a decent economic recovery is in progress.

Arizona’s economic performance in 2014 is expected to continue to be less than robust, according to economists speaking at the 50th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon, co-sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business Department of Economics and JPMorgan Chase.

Things get better -- but not dramatically so -- in 2014, says 2013 Lawrence R. Klein Award winner Dean Maki.

The general consensus on Arizona’s economic outlook for the second half of 2013 is this: Arizona, like the nation, is likely to continue growing, but slowly. In some areas of the economy -- like jobs -- we’ll have to get used to a new normal.

Output of the national economy in the second quarter (Q2) of the year grew at an inflation adjusted annualized pace of 1.3 percent. While the Q2 rise in GDP was an improvement over the 0.4 percent increase in Q1, the gain was the second weakest since the recovery began in mid-year 2009.

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius received the W. P. Carey School’s 2011 Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy in a ceremony on October 20, 2011.

The U.S. economic recovery is anemic. Unemployment is high, and housing is depressed. Gyrations in the stock market leave investors dizzy. But in these difficult times there is cause for optimism, from the standpoint of both individual investors and the U.S.