Tag Archives: Uncategorized

Looks like prices a bit higher for Europe and lower for the rest? Market price action over the next few weeks will tell us if this works to lower prices:This was before the Brexit vote:

from David Ruccio We need to fundamentally reject our “free trade” policies and move to fair trade. Americans should not have to compete against workers in low-wage countries who earn pennies an hour. We must defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We must help poor countries develop sustainable economic models. Sanders’s critique is buttressed by the conclusion of the latest report from the Economic Policy Institute, that the gaps between the richest and poorest families have grown in...

from David Ruccio Mainstream economics has clearly had a great fall. Just two days ago, I argued that—after the crash of 2007-08 and, now, Brexit—mainstream economists have had “nothing to offer, either in terms of insight or a path moving forward.” Also recently, Antonio Callari challenged Brad DeLong’s attempt to reduce economics to the mainstream debate between supply-siders and demand-siders and his argument that there’s no room for economists as public intellectuals. Now, Mark Thoma...

Manufacturing historically just chugs along at maybe a 3% growth rate or so. However as oil capital expenditures collapsed, manufacturing ratcheted down accordingly. And now it looks like it may be resuming it’s traditional modest growth rate from a much lower base than otherwise. This is not to say that the reduction in spending on capex is being replaced, as the spending deficiency now continues after having spread to the (much larger) service sector. Still on the low...

Should European countries accept free in-migration of people? Hmmm… many countries should focus on the problem of how to totally discourage out-migration. In many countries the young and well-educated have left in droves because of boom-bust crises followed by austerity, this despite unfavorable demographics. Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Lithuania are examples – but even in Germany the ‘Harz-reform’ of around 2000 was followed by high net out-migration of Germans.  States should be...

Nice move higher in this highly volatile series. Employment however, moved lower as it has in most surveys: HighlightsVolatility is the name of the game when it comes to the Chicago PMI which surged in June to a 56.8 level that is far beyond expectations and follows a sub-50 contractionary reading of 49.3 in the May report. And there was no indication in the May report of the strength to come as both new orders and backlog orders were in outright contraction. But that was for...

Continues to decline and now down for the month: HighlightsThe lowest mortgage rates in three years are not causing much of a stir in purchase applications for home mortgages, down 3 percent in the June 24 week for the third weekly decline straight. The year-on-year increase in purchase applications volume is a still very strong 13 percent, though far below the 30 percent gains seen in March. Even mortgage refinancing activity abated, down 2.0 percent after rising 7 percent...

This is a comment that Asad Zaman left on Lars Syll’s post Mainstream economics — a pointless waste of time, but it deserves a post of its own. My view is that economics does perfectly what it is designed to do. It is a MISTAKE to think that conventional economic theory is WRONG. In order to make progress, it is essential to understand the function of economic theories. 1. Every economic policy hurts some groups and helps others 2. No group has sufficient POWER to ENFORCE policies...

June 29th, 2016 In September 2015, we were pleased to accept the invitation to serve on an Economic Advisory Council (EAC).  We felt strongly that it represented an opportunity to develop a vision of a progressive economic policy for Britain that departed from the destructive austerity narrative. Our collective view is that the EAC, and its various policy review groups, has indeed had a positive influence on the development of Labour’s economic policy, and we hope it continues whatever...

Still at recession levels: HighlightsCorporate profits sank in the first quarter, revised to minus 2.3 percent year-on-year vs the initial estimate of minus 3.6 percent. Profits are after tax without inventory valuation or capital consumption adjustments. Revised up mainly due to residential investment, which isn’t looking so good in q2. And the downward revision to personal consumption weakens the ‘resilient consumer’ narrative, especially with employment softening in q2....