Tag Archives: US EConomics

Kevin Drum pushes back on the WSJ claim that household debt is a problem in America, and Kevin brings the receipts:“. . . debt as a percent of disposable income . . . is currently lower than it was at the end of 2019 (9.8% vs. 10%).“. . . household debt as a percent of GDP . . . went up during the pandemic and then back down. It is currently lower than it was at the end of 2019 (76.2% vs. 77.7%).“Total credit card balances today are precisely the same...

Progressives and social democrats should be fighting them tooth and nail, not blithely embracing them. by Steve Roth Originally Posted at Wealth Economics The spreadsheet behind the tables and graphs here is available on request. Drop me a line in the comments or elsewhere. Following the community of Socks (🧦s) or “social democrats” out there on the interwebs (this is definitely my economic tribe), in articles, and in books, there’s a...

by commenter Ten Bears Homeless on the High Desert It’s not about Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was my only endorsement in 2020. Kamala Harris is the reason I set aside the three times Joe Biden’s politics have harmed me, harmed my family, harmed the Oregon Timber Industry … and voted for him. And will cast my no party affiliated, independent vote for him again as he turned out the best president of my lifetime. It’s not about Kamala Harris....

Building Badly Needed Muti-Family Housing What is holding back more building of badly needed muti-family housing is the Fed Rate. The effort of course is to bring down inflation. As you read, I think you will discover the effort by the Fed is not achieving the goal it wishes to achieve. Indeed, its efforts to reduce inflation is hurting housing. Read the different scenarios and see if you agree. In a recent Employ America article, Skanda...

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. While several of the monthly updates I’ve discussed here in the past week have tiptoed in the direction of yellow caution flags, that’s not apparent at all in the high frequency data that is updated every week, much of which comes from private sources. In fact, this week for the first time in a long time, not a single coincident indicators was negative. A majority...

I believe I have seen one boy walk out of a Frys with something in his arms. He did not pass through the cashier line but waited for the gates to open to the store and walked through the opposite way. Did the need whatever he had? I don’t know. The only thing this false narrative does is change the priorities from working on real issues to false issues. The author is correct. Stores should have more staff on hand to help customers, stock...

Another take on Housing and Supply of Housing by Skanda Amarnath at the well-known Employ America. This follows or leads what New Deal democrat has been discussing at Angry Bear blog here, here, and here. When we bought into our single-family home, I was able to lock in a 2.6% 30 year mortgage. At this point in time 50% of my mortgage payment goes to principal. The city we live-in is building apartments like they never existed before. The housing...

Jobless claims join other data series inching in the direction of yellow caution territory – by New Deal democrat Ever since jobless claims started higher in May, I’ve cautioned that I suspected that unresolved seasonality may be at play. We are now at the point where claims were at their low points for all last summer. In other words, last week through next weeks are the acid test for that hypothesis. Last week the news was good. This week it...

Industrial and manufacturing production close to 10 year+ highs in June  – by New Deal democrat If the news in housing construction the other morning was cautionary, the news on manufacturing and industrial production was very good. Manufacturing production (red in the graph below) rose 0.4% in June, and is only 0.2% below its post-pandemic high in October 2022. It is also only 1.2% below its highest level since the Great Recession, which...

GOP Pretends as usual By Robert Reich Substack The Republican Party began its national convention last night, with a bow to . . . (wait for it) . . . organized labor. Or Unions. You read that correctly. A few days ago, the Republican National Committee sent out an email with this remarkably ironic headline: “RNC STATEMENT ON FAILED BIDEN’S ANTI-UNION, PRO-CHINA POLICIES” This was followed by an even more absurd RNC statement:...