I wonder what economists call tidbits of economic data that aren't critical--data that's almost at the level of anecdotal--but nonetheless feed into a larger pool of data from which they reach more definite conclusions?
Here are some such tidbits relating mostly to NYC's economy according to reporting by Crain's New York Business.
*19 new US-Europe flights were added this summer, of which 8 are specifically NYC-Europe flights.
*1Q Internet advertising was up 23% nationally from a year earlier.
*The Bronx's unemployment rate jumped to 11.5% in April. (Yikes!) Manhattan's unemployment rate is 6.8%.
*Goldman Sachs' average pay was $431,000 in NYC in 2010, nearly eight times as high as New York State's median household income.
*Goldman Sachs' revenue was down $1 billion in Q1 2011, and 44% of it went to compensation. But in Q1 2010 almost 50% went to compensation.
*Wall Street has added 3,100 jobs in 2011 so far.
*The Fed's quantitative easing helped bring a record number of tourists to NYC because it weakened the dollar's value. The City's on track to easily have more than 50 million tourists in 2011.
*NY State's public pension bill increased 50% in the last 3 years. (This prompted Crain's reporter E.J. McMahon to evoke Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's "political economy 101" lesson: "When you're in a hole, stop digging.")
*30 hotels are currently under construction in NYC.
*Conde Nast signed a 25-year lease for 1 million square feet in 1 World Trade Center (formerly know as the "Freedom Tower") at about $60 PSF for the first 10 years. They expect to move in in early 2014. 66 of the building's 104 stories are completed.
*Foreclosures in NYC fell by 38% in May from a year ago.
*Manhattan residential rents are shooting up and the vacancy rate is now about 1%.
Truly anecdotal:
*The Bloomberg administration is angeling to get UBS to relocate its investment banking unit from Switzerland to NYC. London and Singapore are attempting to lure UBS, too. (Among BS options, I prefer R[BS] to U[BS] because Scotland is just far more hip than Switzerland, and because Mike Meyers says, "If it's not Scottish it's crap!" But UBS has a better logo.)
*The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announced a 2-year partnership with Volkswagen that will be the museum's most extensive corporate sponsorship ever. The dollar amount is confidential.
*The New York City Opera and the American Folk Art Museum are on their last legs. They're both backrupt; ticket sales plummeted in 2009 and 2010. Crain's notes, "experts said it wasn't the recession....but negligence by their boards."
*Bronx Pale Ale is brewed in Connecticut. (There go the nutmeggers cashing in again on the power of an NYC-related brand.)
My contributions:
*Everytime you turn around in Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn, there's a new biergarten. It's obviously a very trendy thing now.
*Rep. Anthony Wiener likely purchased, though was possibly gifted, at least one pair of boxer briefs not too long ago.
Fed banks in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago said growth weakened in those regions. By contrast, the Fed regions in Boston, Cleveland, Richmond, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco said growth there remained steady.
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