Issue #9 of Net Interest, my weekly newsletter on finance industry themes. Thanks to all of you who have forwarded and shared—keep doing what you’re doing! We’re now at nearly 2,300 readers, comprising investors, corporate executives, policymakers, students and more. I’d love that growth to continue; any feedback please do let me know.

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What US Bank Results Tell Us About the State of the Economy

Since the onset of the virus, many datasets have become publicly available allowing people to track the economy in real time. Back in March OpenTable released its daily restaurant booking data by city; it provided a graphical illustration of how lockdowns were affecting the hospitality industry. Likewise, traffic congestion data, movie box-office revenue, daily property sales, passenger load factors on domestic flights, AirBnB searches, Google mobility reports have all emerged as gauges of consumer economic activity. This week Lael Brainard, a member of the Federal Reserve board of governors, ref…