The Angry Bear

August housing construction shows stabilization, following interest rate moderation This morning’s report on August housing permits and starts shows that the stabilizing of mortgage rates in the past few months has now stabilized housing construction. Housing starts increased 3.9% m/m, and total permits increased 6.0%. The less volatile single-family permits increased 0.6%. As a result, the overall trend for all three metrics for the past...

I have found Ten Bears in our comments section from time to time. I also followed the link to his blog “Homeless on the High Desert” and read a few of his posts. In “We’ve been over this before . . . ,” Ten Bears makes the point of migrants, people leaving their homeland to find better land in which to live will continue to go to other lands to live. They will go for food, water, safety, etc. Much of their leaving or all of it is due to pollution...

Disasters and threats tend to be politically unifying.  Public approval of George W. Bush jumped after the 9/11 attacks, and trust in government increased.  Donald Trump’s approval rating was highly stable due to increasing polarization, but even he enjoyed a small increase in approval at the start of the covid epidemic, and trust in government edged up slightly.  With covid, however, the rally-around-the-flag effect was short-lived.  For many...

Median household income and housing affordability Let’s take a look at the affordability (or not!) of housing since there is no economic news of note today (Monday). Last week the Census Bureau released their annual report on median household income for the US, covering 2020. Since this is the best measure to gauge housing affordability, rather than average wages or income, this is a good time to update this information. Median household...

I am sure there are better places to eat in northern Texas where the restaurant owners understand why people would want to wear a mask. Natalie Wester and her husband, Jose, went to hang out in North Dallas suburban sports bar with some friends on September 11 – LOVE BY LIFE “He (owner) added that his restaurant (pictured) is a private business and has (he) the right to refuse service to customers wearing a mask.” He said: “I’ve spent my...

Trip Notes Slept > 8-hours last night. Took off from Las Vegas, New Mexico yesterday morning and headed to Holbrook, Arizona.. If you are ever near Los Vegas NV, you might want to stay in The Plaza hotel, a blast from the past, still done up with a nineteen century interior. Bourbon was good as well as the food. Rooms comfy and styled in a similar motif as the rest of the hotel. Allan Affeldt started the restoration (more to come) of The...

CPI Rose 0.3% in August on Higher Prices for Food, Energy, New Vehicles, Furniture and Appliances; Commenter and Blogger RJS at MarketWatch 666 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Consumer Price Index: All Items for the United States [USACPIALLMINMEI], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USACPIALLMINMEI, September 19, 2021. The consumer price index rose 0.3% in...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for September 13 – 17 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Despite the fact that Delta has been almost as bad as last winter’s wave of infections, which was the worst to date, and has been almost as bad in terms of deaths as the first wave that hit the NYC area hard, it has had almost no effect on the economy, and in particular consumer behavior. In the longer term,...

August retail sales rebound slightly, argue for continued strong jobs growth in autumn Let’s take a look at retail sales, which are perhaps my favorite monthly economic indicator, since they tell us so much about average consumer behavior, and are also a good short leading indicator for jobs.Nominally retail sales increased 0.7% for August, after a -0.6% downward revision to -1.7% for July.  Since consumer prices rose 0.3% in August, real...