…in the course of responding to a linked Fallows piece in theAtlantic in comments at Ezra’s I ran across a very intriguing chartfrom Treasury Fallows was putting out the standard line: We buy toys from China,China turns around and finances our deficit, ultimate end resulttrainwreck. Well oddly enough the numbers don’t support that at leastfor […]

Paul Craig Roberts [former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; co-author (with Lawrence Stratton) of The Tyranny of Good Intentions]: writes The only case the DOJ was able to manufacture against Padilla was that he was a “terrorist-wannabe.” Padilla was thus indicted on the Benthamite grounds that he might commit a terrorist act in the […]

The NBER committee that officially determines the dates for recessions has a few favorite, or key indicators that it gives much more weight. One of the indicators is real manufacturing and trade sales. Not many people pay much attention to it because it does not have its own press release and wall street traders do […]

The other big economic report Friday came through late in the afternoon and did not get much attention. But it was also discouraging. Auto sales fell from 16.3 M (SAAR) in December to 15.2 M (SAAR) in January. So we are starting the first quarter with a sharp drop in both employment and demand.

Nothing in the report is encouraging. Moreover, wage growth continues to weaken.