The Real Economy Blog

Joseph Brusuelas, Chief Economist, RSM US LLP

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

Pre-holiday data deluge: A November to remember

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A series of economic reports released on Wednesday captured the cross currents in the American economy: Jobless claims increase First-time jobless claims rose for the second consecutive week, with the top line increasing to 778,000 for the week ending Nov. 21, up from 742,000 previously, according to the Labor Department. It is clear that the ... READ MORE >

Coronavirus update: The beginning of the end

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The number of potential coronavirus vaccines has increased to three with Oxford/AstraZeneca announcing on Monday that that their technology is potentially 62% effective with two full doses and 90% effective if one gets a half a dose followed by a full dose. Moreover, the vaccine requires distribution and storage at normal temperatures, which will be ... READ MORE >

Jobless claims: Data going wrong way as pandemic intensifies

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Initial jobless claims increased by 742,000 for the week ending Nov. 14 as the pandemic intensified and lockdowns spread across the economy. Continuing claims increased to 6.37 million, while 20.3 million people remain on some form of unemployment insurance, according to Labor Department data released on Thursday. Given the exhaustion of unemployment ... READ MORE >

The year ahead: Resilience, recovery and reimagination

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A series of cross currents in public health, public policy and economics will shape growth conditions across the American economy during the year ahead. The juxtaposition of an intensifying pandemic and the encouraging developments in the race to find a vaccine is the perfect metaphor for growth over the next year. We are all waiting for a vaccine, yet we ... READ MORE >

Coronavirus update: A worsening emergency, as seen in five charts

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It took seven days for the novel coronavirus to infect another million people in the United States, with cases growing from 10 million on Nov. 6 to 11 million on Nov. 13. At the current rate of spread – and unless state and local governments insist on social-distancing practices – the RSM model shows a million new cases being contracted every five ... READ MORE >