Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

 – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. For the first time since I started tracking this data, literally every single one of the coincident indicators is positive. We are starting to experience a boom in economic growth that I expect to continue throughout most if not all of this year. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to what is happening in the economy, and...

Commenter RJS at MARKETWATCH 666 February Durable Goods: New Orders Down 1.1%, Shipments Down 3.5%, Inventories Up 0.7% The Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for February (pdf) from the Census Bureau reported that the value of the widely watched new orders for manufactured durable goods decreased by $2.9 billion or 1.1 percent to $254.0 billion in February, the first decrease in 10 months, after...

February personal income and spending decline: the back end of January stimulus payments Last month I wrote that the:“report on January personal income and spending shows just how important the stimulus packages enacted by the federal government both last spring and last month have been to sustaining the economy.”The truth of that was confirmed on the back end in this morning’s report for February, in which January’s 10% increase in income was...

February personal income and spending decline: the back end of January stimulus payments by New Deal democrat Last month I wrote that the:“report on January personal income and spending shows just how important the stimulus packages enacted by the federal government both last spring and last month have been to sustaining the economy.”The truth of that was confirmed on the back end in this morning’s report for February, in which January’s 10%...

Jobless claims make new pandemic lows at last New jobless claims are likely to the most important weekly economic data for the next 3 to 6 months. They are going to tell us whether, as the number of those vaccinated continues to increase, there will be a veritable surge in renewed commercial and social activities and attendant consumer spending, leading in turn to a strong rebound in monthly employment gains. Two weeks ago I set a few objective...

Seconding Paul Krugman: inflationary pressures will be a transient phenomenon in 2021 (but will they cause a recession in 2022?)  – by New Deal democrat Paul Krugman argues once’s again this morning that any increase in inflation this year as part of a post-pandemic boom will be transitory: I agree. I want to elaborate on one point he hasn’t emphasized; namely, you can’t have a wage-price inflationary spiral if wages don’t participate!To...

Democrats: legislate the society you want to live in first; worry about how to pay for it afterward I want to add my voice to and amplify several themes I have read elsewhere in recent weeks. To summarize: 1. If there is no majority to kill the Senate filibuster, reforming it into an actual talking filibuster is almost as good, and maybe even better. 2. Each element of the democratic constituency should have at least one tangible and...

Commenter r. j. s. at MarketWatch666 Retail Sales Fell 3.0% in February After January Sales Were Revised 1.9% Higher Seasonally adjusted retail sales decreased 3.0% in February after retail sales for January were revised 1.9% higher . . . the Advance Retail Sales Report for February (pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that our seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales totaled $561.7 billion during the month, which was 3.0...

Back when they came up with the shtick about divine right, was a time when the people were more amenable to such. If not, then they, the people, could almost always be convinced. After the monarchies, and their off-shoots the sub-monarchies of Lords and Ladies, began losing some of their divine radiance, this at about the same time that the people started to become more enlightened, the true blues realized that they needed to come up with something...

Rescued from Oblivion! I was sure that the English translation of Friedrich Engels’s Preface to volume 2 of Capital had used the expression “rescued from oblivion” in referring to the 1821 pamphlet, The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties. But the only translations I could find didn’t agree: “In this pamphlet, the importance of which should have been recognized on account of the terms surplus produce or capital, and which Marx saved...