The most important number of the week is ...

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Trying to make sense of the economy over the past 18 months or so has felt like a fruitless endeavor most of the time. Sometimes all you need is cold, hard numbers. Every week, Bloomberg Opinion's Robert Burgess wades through the deluge of data to find just one number that can help us make sense of it all … even if it only brings comfort for a few days. The Most Important Number of the Week Is 1.30%: "The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is down from the high this year of 1.77% at the end of March." (July 17) The Most Important Number of the Week Is $25.6 Trillion: "No economist can say with a straight face that he or she predicted that the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression would just as quickly turn into boom times not seen since the 1980s." (June 12) The Most Important Number of the Week Is Zero: "The data are still signaling a strong economy; it's just that reports are not exceeding forecasts as they were through the last half of 2020 and early 2021." (May 22) The Most Important Number of the Week Is 0.3%: "Even with all the breathless reporting of late about how companies are having a hard time finding employees and are resorting to boosting starting salaries and offering signing bonuses, there's surprisingly little evidence of broad wage inflation." (July 3) The Number of the Week Is $100 Billion: "If you believe in the adage that a healthy economy can't exist without a healthy financial system, then you're in luck." (April 3) The Most Important Number of the Week Is $45.03: "Analysts have been boosting their profit forecasts at a record pace. And they may still end up being too conservative." (July 10) Only One Number Mattered to Global Markets in 2020: "Why, in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed millions of people worldwide and plunged the economy into the worst crisis since the Great Depression, did equity markets stage a historic rebound to reach new highs and become completely disconnected from reality?" (Dec. 28) This is the Theme of the Week edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a digest of our top commentary published every Sunday.

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