Tag Archives: Hot Topics

New home sales: if you lower prices, they (buyers) will come  – by New Deal democrat New home sales are the most leading of all the housing metrics, but suffer from being heavily revised as well as extreme volatility.  With that caveat out of the way, in December new single family home sales (blue in the graph below) rose 49,000 on an annualized basis to 664,000, just about in the middle of their last year’s range: Because the much...

Open Thread January 18 2024 Biden, the Oldest President Yet, Angry Bear Tags: 2017 tax breaks

Modeling the numbers on bottom-up and middle-out economics. How Redistribution Makes Us All Richer, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth You hear a lot about bottom-up and middle-out economics these days, as antidotes to a half-century of “trickle-down” theorizing and rhetoric. You’re even hearing it, prominently, from Joe Biden. [embedded content] They’re compelling ideas: put more wealth and income in the hands of millions, or hundreds of...

This post is long and flirts with the 10% fair use limit, but I’ll try to keep under it.Dave Kellogg has a blog post up from a few days ago comparing the messaging of Team Trump vs Team Biden. Read the whole thing, but here are some core points. Kellogg distills the Democratic two-word message to “Save Democracy” and the GOP two-word message to “Save America.”In short: • “Republicans want to save the country, Democrats want to save an idea. Saving...

Attacks on Red Sea shipping, and its tie to US energy consumption  – by New Deal democrat The drought in economic data continues today. So let me continue on the issue of energy, tying into yesterday’s note on hybrid and electric vehicles. Here’s an eye-opening graph from JP Morgan via Carl Quintanilla’s social media feed, showing an 80% decline in shipping through the Suez Canal following Houthi attacks on commercial vessels at the entrance...

Follow-up to “Why is Boeing such a shitty corporation?” Angry Bear, by Robert Reich Assebly Issue – Boeing 737 Max Plug Bolts not specifications. No defective parts, just defective assembly. As I said to Ron . . . “The same with cars. For example, Testing on vehicles such as smashing into a wall (commonly seen on TV) shoulda, woulda, etc. been done. Cabin pressurization? I would think testing was done on this item installed too? Is there a...

A discussion: EV sales have been stalling, while hybrids are flying off dealer lots  – by New Deal democrat In addition to housing, the other big area where supply shock inflation has not completely resolved is vehicles. Basically almost the entirety of 2020 production was lost, leading to roughly a 10 million vehicle shortfall in the amount necessary to replace old vehicles. As the below graph shows, while new vehicles cost no more in “real”...

I read this article “MAGA warning to Dems is right on target.” An OpEd by the NY Post. Others may disagree, I believe it to be nonsensical. Just some rich guy saying, I like it like this. Don’t change it. There is a lot saying he is wrong. Adding the detail in brevity. You can always click on a link to get more detail. Here is Jamie Dimon comping trump and Biden on the economy. What do you think he is worried about over the next four years? First,...

The Bonddad Blog: Are working class wages really still a malady? New Deal democrat Via Kevin Drum, NY Times columnist Nick Kristof says, “There isn’t a good term for the bundle of pathologies that have afflicted working-class Americans . . . .” “One gauge of how many Americans are struggling is that average weekly nonsupervisory wages, a metric for blue-collar earnings, were lower in the first half of 2023 than they had been (adjusted for...

I suspect some of the magnitude of job increasing claims are subsiding with the automotive sector backing off on EV vehicles. The trend is there. It will grow over time. The US tires of having to deal with medical supply issues during the pandemic, semiconductors, and the supply chain. The backup of containers on the west coast gave great emphasis on fixing the issues. Reshoring and FDI Jobs Increase a Record 53% at the End of 2022, plastics...