Yesterday, the Commerce Department reported that, before adjusting for inflation, durable goods orders were down by 8.3 percent from year ago levels (down by 1.1 percent, excluding transportation) and that new home sales were down 23.3 percent (before taking account of cancellations). The Labor Department reported that new unemployment insurance claims for the previous week were 331,000. The weekly rate had been close to 300,000 earlier in the year. The NYT article on these releases is headlined "Reports Show Mixed Economic Picture." What exactly is "mixed" in this story?
--Dean Baker
