Tag Archives: Hot Topics

Much of Michigan is touting Republican State Senator Ed McBroom who led an investigation into Michigan’s supposed voting fraud. He found none and openly admitted there was none in his report. Senator and dairy farmer Ed McBroom also called for the prosecution of those who capitalized on the supposed voting fraud by starting defense funds and collecting donations. He also called upon the Democrat Michigan AG to investigate those who were promoting...

No, liberals are not to blame for political polarization Over the long weekend, Kevin Drum picked a fight by saying that you should “blame liberals” for culture wars, arguing that liberals have shifted their positions much more over the past two decades than conservatives. This has provoked some strong counter-arguments, but what has struck me – as usual – is how little people have actually looked at the data. When you do so, there are at least...

June’s jobs report, Marketwatch 666, Commenter RJS This week’s major agency issued economic releases included the Employment Situation Summary for June from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and three May reports that will input into 2nd quarter GDP: the BEA’s report on International Trade for May, the May report on  Construction Spending and the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for May, both from the Census Bureau . ....

For Independence Day The Declaration of Independence, 1776: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes...

Construction Spending Falls 0.3% in May after March & April Spending Revised Higher, Commenter RJS, Marketwatch 666 The Census Bureau report on construction spending for May (pdf) estimated that May’s seasonally adjusted construction spending would work out to $1,545.3 billion annually if extrapolated over an entire year, which was 0.3 percent (±1.0 percent)* below the revised annualized estimate of $1,549.5 billion of construction spending in...

June data starts out mixed: manufacturing strong, housing stalls, New Deal democrat June data started out this morning with the ISM manufacturing report. There was no big change from last month’s torrid pace. The overall index declined a very slight -0.6% to 60.6, while the leading new orders component declined by 1 to 66:Any number over 60 implies a very strong economy, so this report indicates that the manufacturing sector is still red hot....

Farmer-economist Michael Smith comments from More Random News Events of the Week post ________ My comment on the open thread, “what exactly does the federal government plan to do this is a little mind boggling. The USDA is limited in the resources they have. They can provide grants but it would need congress to fund it.” A few things I am working through in the consideration of carbon capture: 1. How much is enough? My operation requires...

Gotta give credit where credit is due. If not for my morning readings at other sites, I would not have run across this gem at Crooks and Liars as done by Chris capper Liebenthal. This gentleman, ahh redneck, paints the situation a bit differently than what I or other more learned (than I) people might do having a tendency to speak in elegant, technical, and formal verbiage. It is said plain and simple in this case. Now if you can not stand a few...

New jobless claims: a surprise to the positive side I have been paying particular attention to new jobless claims this year, as being the most important weekly economic datapoint to correlate with vaccination progress. My ultimate target for claims is an average of 325,000 or below, which would signify a return to normal expansion levels in the past 30 years. Lasts week I wrote that “Unfortunately, that progress [in vaccinations] has largely...

PhD geneticist and molecular biologist Joel Eissenberg discussing CRISPR results. — “A watershed moment in modern medicine,” says genetics expert The promise of gene therapy may finally be realized. I’ve been a PhD geneticist and molecular biologist for nearly 40 years. During that time, I’ve seen the cloning of many human genes for which inherited diseases were known (e.g., cystic fibrosis, Huntingtons, Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy)....