Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

RJS, MarketWatch 666 Summary: Producer Prices Rose 0.5% in April; Record Annual Increase of 16.3% for Final Demand for Goods The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.5% in April, as average prices for finished wholesale goods rose by 1.3% while final demand for services was unchanged . . . that increase followed a revised 1.6% increase in March, when average prices for finished wholesale goods rose by 2.4% and...

Harvest season has sprung upon us in a hurry. We had to spend a few evenings in the fields collecting squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and even dug up all of the potatoes, among the multitude of other things we planted this spring and continue to plant. It’s been a busy few weeks that have been hard both physically as well as mentally due to market conditions but we will get to that. Current Macro ag is coming in hot. Commodities futures are up...

RJS, Focus on Fracking Summary: Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a 21-year low, distillates supply at a 17-year low The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending May 6th indicated that after another drop in our oil exports, another oil withdrawal from the SPR, and an increase in oil that could not be accounted for, we again had oil to add to our stored...

Having run a warehouse for a major $12 billion automotive component corporation, I can relate to container shipping globally. We shipped full containers to a number of countries on a weekly and monthly basis. This was dependent upon production demand. Reporting good news, a trend, and extreme profits? Peak of container shipping’s epic boom already passed? Hapag-Lloyd: The fifth-largest container line sees signs the market peaked back in the...

Weekly Indicators for May 9 – 13 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. One measure of how the Russia-Ukraine war has been “normalized” globally, is that industrial commodity prices have declined sharply – on the order of 25% – in the past two weeks, taking back their entire sharp increase at the start of hostilities. Meanwhile, the Treasury yield curve has “normalized” somewhat more in...

The Passing Of Axel Leijonhufvud  On May 5, Swedish economist Axel Leijonhufvud died at age 88. I only met him once when he attended a seminar I gave in Trento, Italy a decade ago. I always admired his work and felt lots of sympathy with it, and I think he liked what I had to say at least in my seminar that day.  He was someone who stood outside of orthodoxy while not being clearly tied to any particular school of economic thought.  However, he...

RJS, Focus on Fracking __________ Summary: Natural gas price hits 164 month high after doubling in 2 months; SPR at a 1058 week low, total US oil supplies at a 746 week low; distillates supplies at a 729 week low, total oil + products inventories at a 711 week low, gasoline imports at a 8 month high; natural gas rigs at a 31 month high.. ___________ Natural gas prices hit 164 month high after doubling in 2 months Oil prices rose for...

On the self-government of prehistorical human settlements, whether empire-sized Republics can long survive, and the failure of judicial supremacy as a bulwark   Can the Empire-sized Republic long survive? This was the issue I pondered after Donald Trump was elected President in 2016. Once a country gets big enough, do elected officials ultimately fail, and people inevitably turn to an autocrat to lead them?  That led me on a journey reading the...

RJS, MarketWatch 666 Summary: Trade Deficit Rose 22.3% to Record High in March on Higher Imports of Industrial Supplies & Materials and Consumer Goods Our trade deficit was at another record high in March, 22.3% higher than February’s record, as both our imports and exports increased, but our imports increased by quite a bit more . . . the Commerce Department’s report on our international trade in goods and services for March indicated that...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for May 2 – 6 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Over the past few months, indicators across all timeframes have deteriorated. With increasing interest rates, and another Fed rate hike, that trend continued, and spread to credit conditions in a significant way. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment, and will bring me some lunch...