Tag Archives: US EConomics

– by New Deal democrat August CPI, with the conspicuous exception of shelter, continued to come in tame. And the list of other “problem children” decreased by 1, as only food away from home (restaurants) and transportation services (motor vehicle insurance and repairs) remain. Let’s get the headlines out of the way:  – Headline CPI continued increased 0.2% for the month, and decelerated to 2.6% YoY, its best showing since February of...

and of a 3% inflation target? There is some risk of recession in the USA because the FED insists on driving inflation down to 2%.  Oddly back in the naughts when inflation was persistently below the 2% target, there was more discussion of raising the target. Then IMF chief economist discussed it. Paul Krugman advocated it: “The basic point is that a higher baseline for inflation would make liquidity traps, in which conventional monetary policy...

This is a brief introduction to the housing state of affairs in Arizona. It is building up quickly. Builders, declarants, and corporate HOAs have a great swath of control over what is occurring. None of which has controlling input from residents. What I am also seeing in the Planning and Zoning Commissions is ignorance on how these developments should be dealt with regard to lot sizes, roads, etc. They are more of a rubber stamp. These communities...

Farming is a risky business. Always has been. A federal program to keep farmers in business during droughts seems like a good idea to me. Sadly, it’s also a target for fraud:“On a normal day, the promising storms produced snow or rain that would fall onto a system of official weather stations at airstrips or town halls, into heated “tipping buckets.” When the teeter-totter buckets filled with a thimbleful of water, the seesaw tilted, dropping one...

 – by New Deal democrat There’s no big economic news today or tomorrow, so let’s take a more detailed look at the leading indicators from Friday’s jobs report. It turns out, the news wasn’t nearly as bad as the headline employment number. Let’s start with the negative stuff. The simple story is, manufacturing is in a funk. Employment in manufacturing declined -24,000, which is tied for a two-year low. Meanwhile, trucking employment declined...

I did some rewriting on this particular commentary and added two charts from another commentary (at the bottom). The point being to give graphical depiction of the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and who it benefited the most. You can see (for whatever reason) why the Republican Party is pushing for this and taking it from Medicaid. You can also wonder why less wealthy Republicans making far less than the major beneficiaries are not up in...

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. In the wake of yesterday’s weak jobs report, bond yields and mortgage rates declined to 12 months+ lows, commodities declined across the board, stocks sold off sharply, and the 10 years to 2-year Treasury spread un-inverted. That’s bad news and good news. It’s bad news because it indicates a belief that the economy has weakened substantially, but good news because...

by American Economic Liberties Project Looks like tgings are being said that are no legally enforceable. Let me see . . . Deleted emails, Albertson’s CEO can walk away with a $40-something million bonus if he can close the deal, a special dividend to private equity investors worth $4 billion and paid with borrowed money, the $4 billion came after Albertsons swore to both a judge and to Congress that it was in “excellent financial condition.”...

It is an accurate rant and depicts what I see on the highway. I see much of this in Arizona where we live today. An explosion of oversized vehicles which typically do not carry anything but people. As one planning commissioner said to the builders, sixty percent of the vehicles being driven in southern Arizona are pickups. The implication here was driveways must be long enough to accommodate them so they do not block a sidewalk. And then, do the...

This report by Employ America was written the day before the Unemployment report was released on the 6th. There is another link to a report on Indeed at the end of this report. It too makes for an interesting tead. The good news from the August jobs report is the labor market is not weakening as quickly as July’s shaky report would have you believe. The bad news is the labor market’s strength is slowly fading. Time is a-wasting for the Fed to take...