Tag Archives: US EConomics

January 2021 jobs report: a strong divergence between very weak job gains, but a big drop in unemployment; but the only critical number is the doses of vaccine administered  For the past several weeks, based on the increase in initial jobless claims, I have warned that the December employment report might have a negative number, or at very least a very weak positive. Once again this was an accurate forecast. There was a strong divergence...

January 2021 jobs report: a strong divergence between very weak job gains, but a big drop in unemployment; but the only critical number is the doses of vaccine administered  For the past several weeks, based on the increase in initial jobless claims, I have warned that the December employment report might have a negative number, or at very least a very weak positive. Once again this was an accurate forecast. There was a strong divergence...

Early this morning the Senate passed a budget resolution telling committees to spend an additional $ 1.9 T on Covid relief. Yesterday, Larry Summers wrote an op-ed expressing concerns about the imminent resolution. Like many many many people, I disagree in part. Oddly, I think I disagree less strongly with Summers than most US adults do. Summers makes two arguments. The first is that the stimulus is too large The proposed stimulus will total...

Early this morning the Senate passed a budget resolution telling committees to spend an additional $ 1.9 T on Covid relief. Yesterday, Larry Summers wrote an op-ed expressing concerns about the imminent resolution. Like many many many people, I disagree in part. Oddly, I think I disagree less strongly with Summers than most US adults do. Summers makes two arguments. The first is that the stimulus is too large The proposed stimulus will total...

Turns out that the best weapon against the COVID-19 virus was, and still is, the N95 face mask. If this wasn’t known from the start, it should have been. We, the greatest nation on earth, the greatest nation that has ever been, were, and still are, dependent on China, and South Korea, for N95 masks. Couldn’t even get enough N95s in those early days of the pandemic for our front-line healthcare workers. During those early weeks, doubling 1,000 new...

Turns out that the best weapon against the COVID-19 virus was, and still is, the N95 face mask. If this wasn’t known from the start, it should have been. We, the greatest nation on earth, the greatest nation that has ever been, were, and still are, dependent on China, and South Korea, for N95 masks. Couldn’t even get enough N95s in those early days of the pandemic for our front-line healthcare workers. During those early weeks, doubling 1,000 new...

Writer Nancy LeTourneau describes herself as “a pragmatic progressive who has been blogging about politics since 2007.” She writes at her blog, “Horizons” and also commentary on Twitter @Smartypants60. In the past, Nancy has written articles for the Washington Monthly. “How Biden Is Walking His Talk on Unity,” Horizons, Nancy LeTourneau, January 27, 2021, There are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today....

Writer Nancy LeTourneau describes herself as “a pragmatic progressive who has been blogging about politics since 2007.” She writes at her blog, “Horizons” and also commentary on Twitter @Smartypants60. In the past, Nancy has written articles for the Washington Monthly. “How Biden Is Walking His Talk on Unity,” Horizons, Nancy LeTourneau, January 27, 2021, There are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today....

The two most leading sectors of the real economy – manufacturing and construction – remain “on fire” Data for January 2021 started out this morning with the ISM manufacturing index, while the December laggard of construction spending was also reported.  While the ISM manufacturing reading declined from 60.7 to 58.7, since 50 is the break-even point, this is still a very strong positive. The even more leading new orders subindex also declined...

The two most leading sectors of the real economy – manufacturing and construction – remain “on fire” Data for January 2021 started out this morning with the ISM manufacturing index, while the December laggard of construction spending was also reported.  While the ISM manufacturing reading declined from 60.7 to 58.7, since 50 is the break-even point, this is still a very strong positive. The even more leading new orders subindex also declined...