Although the new-media industry has been a fairly strong contributor to New York City's economic growth, the city's reputation as a new-media hub appears to be overstated.

The weekly numbers on initial claims for unemployment insurance convey key information about the labor market. But how reliable are claims in predicting changes in the much anticipated monthly employment report? According to a simple forecasting model, claims consistently send an accurate signal...

The Treasury Department makes available to the public considerable information about foreign holdings of its securities. Nevertheless, it is not possible to determine from the published data exactly which foreigners own U.S. Treasury debt and how much of this debt is in foreign hands.

U.S. manufacturing industries are becoming increasingly sensitive to changes in the international value of the dollar. A look at recent studies of exchange rate effects on industry performance suggests that the 1997-98 rise in the dollar may significantly reduce U.S. producers' profits and...

Employment growth in the New York-New Jersey region in 1998 is likely to match the previous year's pace of 1.7 percent, or 200,000 new jobs. Growth will continue in 1999, but it will slow modestly, to about 1.2 percent, or 145,000 new jobs.

Many consumers who lack checking accounts are paying relatively high costs to access the nation's payments system. Legislation aimed at opening the system to these unbanked individuals has centered on requiring commercial banks to offer low-cost "lifeline" accounts. But will cost savings alone...

Over the past two decades, inequality trends in the New York-New Jersey region have largely followed the nation's: among year-round, full-time workers, the earnings gap has widened about 50 percent.

Trade liberalization has had little effect on the use of antidumping tariffs - tariffs imposed on imports judged by a government to be unfairly priced. As more countries resort to such tariffs, questions arise about the merits of this form of trade protection, particularly when other remedies...

With the 1998 current account deficit approaching $225 billion, attention is again focusing on the deficit's impact on U.S. jobs. Although a high deficit does adversely affect employment in export- and import-competing industries, it also means that considerable foreign capital is flowing into...

Last year's sharp drop in the capital ratios of bank holding companies could cast doubt on the companies' future capital strength, especially if credit quality eroded significantly or if profitability weakened. However, an analysis linking the drop in ratios to bank efforts to increase...