Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

February JOLTS report: soft landing-ish? – except for a noisy jump in layoffs

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog The JOLTS report for February showed stabilization or slight improvement to all but one of its components, generally suggesting, well, stabilization in the overall jobs market. Starting with the monthly changes, job openings (blue in the graph below), a soft statistic that is polluted by imaginary, permanent, and […]

The Results of Bad Evolution

Happy Easter, or happy whatever way you celebrate the coming of spring. Yesterday the good Christian Tim Walberg, who has ineffectually represented a chunk of southern Michigan in Congress since 2010, apparently called for us to use nuclear weapons in Gaza to “get it over quick.” He was, of course, once a Bible salesman. Jack […]

END THE TAX ON Social Security. A Good Idea?

by Dale Coberly No. It’s not. Here is why. The argument for ending the tax on Social Security benefits seems to be that “it is a tax on a tax”, double taxing, and not fair. Even the good guys believe this. But they are wrong. Consider,  You pay income taxes on your ordinary income.  Then […]

Monthly data starts out with slightly positive news in manufacturing, slightly negative in construction

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog As usual, the new month’s data starts out with information on manufacturing and construction. To repeat what I have said often recently, these are the two sectors I am paying particular attention to for forecasting purposes this year. The ISM manufacturing index has been a good leading […]

Record wind and solar power generation in Germany. No foolin’.

When I think of the places on the planet that seem optimized for solar and wind power generation, I think of deserts like the Sahara and the desert Southwest in the US. And yet Germany is generating a growing share of its electricity through these renewables: “Preliminary data by energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen […]

The Right’s Long Game to End Public Education

Briefly, this commentary is about creating a better environment for all children in public schools and stymie the political and personal efforts impeding the environment for them coming from privatization interests. by Jeff Bryant The Progressive Magazine “Every year, there’s something to stoke division in an attempt to disrupt our public schools and decrease the […]