US unemployment claims up, GDP slows….

Good morning everyone on this Royal Wedding day, when we’re in dire need of cheer. We’re taking cover, dodging the street parties. Sympathise with Mad Melvin – the angriest BBC Radio caller ever?

http://davelee.tumblr.com/post/5011310854/mad-melvin-the-angriest-bbc-local-radio-caller-ever

Richard Portes, until recently, the architect of ‘Plan B’ at No 10 Downing St, calls for….erm……Plan B.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1a65296-70ad-11e0-9b1d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1KcXCDKAU

Workers Memorial Day…for those that have died at work…

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Workers-Memorial-Day-8211-pay-respects/article-3496488-detail/article.html

US weekly unemployment claims have increased over the last few weeks, notes Calculated Risk, and this is the first time the four-week average was above 400,000 in two months.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/04/weekly-initial-unemployment-claims_28.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculate

Mike Norman: “Q1 GDP slows sharply, Gov’t spending falls at fastest pace in 28 years!”

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2011/04/q1-gdp-slows-sharply-govt-spending.html?spref=fb

US economy slows, as consumer spending decelerates: Norman Schaefer at Forbes:

http://blogs.forbes.com/steveschaefer/2011/04/28/u-s-economy-slows-as-consumer-spending-decelerates/

Dismal Scientist notes that real GDP increased 1.75% at an annualized rate in the first quarter of 2011. This was slightly below the consensus estimate of 2%, and well below the 3.1% pace in the fourth quarter of 2010.

https://www.economy.com/home/login/ds_proLogin_5.asp?script_name=/dismal/pro/release.asp&r=usa_gdp&tkr=1104280857

Dean Baker, whose analyses are always credible, writes that “Slowing Car Sales Weaken Growth in First Quarter”

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/gdp-bytes/2011-04

“The Shoe on the other foot…when Greece cancelled Germany’s debt.” Jurgen Kaiser at the European Debt and Development Coalition on a time when Germany depended on Greece’s munificence…

http://www.eurodad.org/blog/index.aspx?id=4465&blogid=1758

With thanks to Jeremy Leggett: ABC TV shot a 12 minute film on peak oil earlier this year that aired just now in Australia. It is the clearest TV account of the peak oil threat that we have seen thus far in the drama. It hinges on a very clever journalist teasing out Fathi Birol, chief economist at the IEA.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3201781.htm

A more detailed version of the interviews she conducted has aired on ABC radio, and in this Birol goes much further than we have ever heard or read him doing in inferring that the IEA does not believe its own (shrinking) supply projections.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2011/3198227.htm

A boost for Sarkozy and Berlusconi on tightening immigration controls…

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,759499,00.html

IMF chart on China overtaking US…

http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=k3s92bru78li6_&ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=pppsh&hl=en&dl=en#ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=pppsh&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country_group&idim=country_group:001&idim=country:CN:US&hl

That’s it folks!