Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

Economist and Farmer Michael Smith Introduction Well, Its About to Become Worse as Urea prices jumped to a record strong demand creating supply shortages. Food prices to increase . . . And the Details I was recently sitting on a conference call with a fertilizer analyst and a bunch of monocrop growers, generally feeling out of place with my few dozen pounds of peppers, cucumbers and radishes sitting in cold storage while they go over...

Commenter and Blogger, RJS MarketWatch 666 3rd quarter GDP, September’s income and outlays, durable goods, & new home sales The key economic reports that were released this week were the 1st estimate of 3rd quarter GDP and the September report on Personal Income and Spending, both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ….the week also saw the release of the advance report on durable goods for September and the September report on new home...

Commenter and Blogger, RJS MarketWatch 666 3rd quarter GDP, September’s income and outlays, durable goods, & new home sales The key economic reports that were released this week were the 1st estimate of 3rd quarter GDP and the September report on Personal Income and Spending, both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ….the week also saw the release of the advance report on durable goods for September and the September report on new home...

Theft of alien labour time is a miserable foundation In the early 1980s, I was riding home from work on a bus and looked out the window at a Toyota pickup truck alongside. I was overwhelmed by the realization that I could never in my life make such an object by hand, even if I had a well-supplied metal workshop. From that perspective, how could I hope to own such an item? I did own a Volkswagen Rabbit but somehow the pickup truck made more of an...

Theft of alien labour time is a miserable foundation In the early 1980s, I was riding home from work on a bus and looked out the window at a Toyota pickup truck alongside. I was overwhelmed by the realization that I could never in my life make such an object by hand, even if I had a well-supplied metal workshop. From that perspective, how could I hope to own such an item? I did own a Volkswagen Rabbit but somehow the pickup truck made more of an...

September personal income and spending: positive, but consumers’ “cushion” of pandemic assistance savings is now exhausted Real personal income and spending held up well throughout the pandemic, due to a vigorous government response. This morning these were reported for the first month after the expiration of the last such assistance. In nominal terms, personal income declined -1.0%, but spending rose 0.6%, and the previous month was revised...

Commenter and Blogger RJS, Focus on Fracking, The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending October 22nd indicated that after a modest increase in our oil imports and a modest decrease in our oil exports, we had surplus oil to add to our stored commercial crude supplies for the fourth time in five weeks and for the for the ninth time in the past thirty weeks...

(Hence the correctness of the theory of surplus population and surplus capital…) Marx mentioned, “the theory of surplus population and surplus capital,” parenthetically, in the Grundrisse and “surplus population and surplus capital” in his 1862-63 draft of Capital. Although it isn’t certain what theory exactly he was referring to, the phrase reappears, in reverse order, in chapter 15, section 3 of volume III of Capital, “Surplus Capital alongside...

“Lump” and “labor” are two words… From: Tom Walker Sent: October 27, 2021 3:49 PM To: scott.a.wolla@ Subject: Lump of labor fallacy Dear Scott, I just came across your article, “Examining the Lump of Labor Fallacy Using a Simple Economic Model,” from November of last year on the St. Louis Fed website. I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I was dismayed to see the old canard of a fallacy recycled without any...

September Personal Income Fell 1.0%, Spending Rose 0.6%, PCE Price Index Up 0.3%; Savings Rate Lowest Since December 2019, Commenter and Blogger RJS, MarketWatch 666 Friday’s release of the September Income and Outlays report was concurrent with the GDP release on Thursday, and all the PCE data in the 3rd quarter GDP report we just covered actually originated with this report . . . and like that GDP report, all the dollar values reported here...