Tag Archives: US EConomics

Weekly Indicators for February 6 – 10 at Seeking Alpha I neglected to post the link to this yesterday, so let me do it today. My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. We continue to see a slow drip, drip, drip of ever so slightly more negative coincident data, without it crossing over into firm recessionary territory. I have a feeling I know what the crucial reason why is, and that metric will be updated this coming week (that’s...

In the Private Sector? The Protecting the Right to Organize Act is a historic proposal restoring fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal laws protecting workers’ right to unionize and bargain for higher wages and better benefits. In the Public Sector? There is no federal law protecting the freedom of state and local public service workers to join a union and collectively bargain. Numerous states have passed free rider so-called...

More Economic and Government topics the time. Much of it due to the pandemic caused economic issue. It is interesting as to how the news varies from week to week and what becomes important. I did add reports on Ukraine’s economy for 2022. You will see percentages from ~31% to ~38% cited depending on who you read. The Housing economy in in Arizona has come to a near standstill. At an AZ State House Committee meeting, the representatives were...

Another take on wages and salaries outpacing inflation. Not so says Robert Shapiro. Inflation Reality Check: Don’t Blame Wages and Salaries for High Prices, Washington Monthly, Robert J. Shapiro Yes, economics can be complicated, and economic reporters work under tight deadlines. There is no excuse for the media meme blaming rising wages for much of today’s inflation. The Wall Street Journal summed up this erroneous view in a recent headline,...

Updating some important coincident indicators  – by New Deal democrat We returned to no more significant monthly data today. So here are some important coincident indicators I’ve been particularly following. Redbook consumer purchases only increased 4.3% YoY last week, the lowest number in almost 2 years. The 4 week average also declined to 4.7%, also a 2 year low: This strongly suggests that the January retail sales report, which will be...

As Holiday seasonality disappears, initial jobless claims turn higher YoY  – by New Deal democrat Initial jobless claims rose 13,000 last week to 196,000. The four-week moving average declined -7,500 to 189,250. Continuing claims increased 38,000 to 1,688,000. Below I show all three since initial claims first fell below 300,000 in late October 2021: Because seasonality played such a role in January’s jobs report, here are initial claims...

From the New York Times, Ezra Klein’s opinion piece, The Story Construction Tells About America’s Economy Is Disturbing Here’s something odd: We’re getting worse at construction. Think of the technology we have today that we didn’t in the 1970s. The new generations of power tools and computer modeling and teleconferencing and advanced machinery and prefab materials and global shipping. You’d think we could build much more, much faster, for...

This Is What Happens When Progressives Look the Other Way – Peter Dorman @Econospeak Recent events in Florida—the “Stop WOKE” Act, the rejection of AP African American Studies, the hostile takeover of New College—and the publication of an excellent op-ed about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the Chronicle of Higher Education have me returning to a topic I blogged on several years ago, but in a new light. It was obvious, and I mean...

Credit conditions in Q4 were recessionary – by New Deal democrat While we are still in our lull concerning monthly data, on Monday there was a significant update of one long leading indicator that is only reported Quarterly: the Senior Loan Officer Survey. This survey has an excellent history of over 30 years telling us about credit conditions. Loosening of credit, and an increase in demand for credit means expansion ahead. Credit tightening...

According to Pence, Republicans will come up with a Better Deal to replace Social Security. Allow younger people to place their funds in private and commercial investment funds. Funds from which a portion will be taken to manage them and to which will be exposed to the ups and downs of the economy. Abandoning Social Security is part of the Republican plan to resolve the national debt. Countering this pan would be to allow the trump tax cut of...