Tag Archives: Hot Topics

[embedded content] If you think there is abuse in our welfare system, in this case TANF, you are correct. Only, it is not the people for whom the system is suppose to be helping. In fact, there are state who are sitting on the money not having spent/distributed it as they should have. As usual, John does a great job on this issue. “States have broad flexibility over the use of state and federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)...

New home sales for February increase; likely bottomed last July  – by New Deal democrat Most of what you probably read elsewhere focuses on new home prices, which after finally declining -0.7% YoY in January, rebounded to +2.5% YoY. As is usual, prices  follow sales YoY with a considerable lag (note since prices are not seasonally adjusted, this is the right way to make the comparison): In fact if you’ve been reading me and following my rule...

If you are not reading New Deal democrat as he marks the progress of the economy over the last year, you really should start. The detail on what certain economic markers determine are in his weekly analysis done on a daily basis for various markers. Updating 3 high frequency indictors: no recession yet, but no paucity of yellow flags – by New Deal democrat Aside from the Fed’s rate decision which will be announced this afternoon, it’s a...

February existing home sales confirm prices have declined, but bottom in sales and construction may be in  – by New Deal democrat There were only two noteworthy takeaways from the February existing home sales report: (1) like mortgage applications, permits, and starts, existing home sales responded to lower mortgage rates (a decline from just over 7% to just above 6% between last October and January): (2) As usual, price changes lag...

Average and aggregate nonsupervisory wages for February 2023  – by New Deal democrat There’s no significant economic news today, so let’s update a couple of income indicators important to average American working households. Namely, because we now have the inflation report for February as well as payrolls, we can update average and aggregate nonsupervisory wages. Average hourly earnings for nonsupervisory employees increased 0.5% on a...

Putting on a different hat today. My background includes supply chain management. I am look at what the industry experts are seeing and whether I agree with them. Much of what I have seen over the last two years is a repeat of 2008. We again are late to beginning issues. And again, we are waking up late to the beginning of the end of the same issues. No Cassandras amongst us. Good article . . . The Fed’s supply chain pressure gauge just went...

In your face …, Homeless on the High Desert, Gda says . . . October 21, 2017 in White Rose “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves...

Industrial production ‘meh’ in February, but down sharply since last summer; real manufacturing and trade sales forecast to decline in Febuary  – by New Deal democrat Industrial production was unchanged for the month of February, while manufacturing production rose +0.1%. But the bad news is that both were revised lower for the past 5 months, as shown on the two graphs below: As a result, industrial production (blue below) is now -1.8% below...

Housing construction: good news and bad news  – by New Deal democrat This morning’s report on housing construction contained both good news and bad news. First, the good news. Both permits (gold in the graph below) and starts (blue) increased, the former by 185,000 on an annualized rate, the latter by 129,000: It is very possible that January’s rate of 1.339 million permits annualized and 1.321 starts will be the low for this cycle....

I thought this would be interesting to our readers, especially those who are following the development of electric vehicles. Electric has infiltrated heavy equipment. This is Volvo’s latest all electric excavator: EC230. It is a 23 metric tonne (25 ton) machine. Not small. It is just like their diesel version but with batteries and an electric motor. 264KW of battery power. They are in the double digits for sales already. They have it structured...