Mainstream Economics become the celebration of the wealthy rentier class To paraphrase Mark Twain, everyone complains about inequality, but nobody does anything about it. What they do is to use “inequality” as a takeoff point to project their own views on how to make society more prosperous and at the same time more equal. These […]

Go, Secretary Mnuchin! Save The Iranian Banks! In the Sept. 14 Washington Post, Josh Rogin is all shocked and upset about a report that people in the US Treasury Department, apparently supported by, if not outright led by, Secretary Steve Mnuchin, have been stonewalling or slow-moving a memo that was ordered up by President Trump […]

The Taboo against raising wages is still thriving among small businesses The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) put out its monthly confidence and hiring reports over the past few days. The confidence report soared to new high, so the economy is Teh Awesome and happy days are here again! Right? And look! It’s confirmed by […]

Via AOL is an interesting program: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is testing a new “presidential alert” system nationwide for the first time next week that will make it possible for Donald Trump to directly message nearly everyone in the nation who has a cell phone. Officials insisted that the system cannot be used for […]

Subdued inflation helps gains in real average and aggregate wages With the consumer price report Tuesday morning, let’s conclude this weeklong focus on jobs and wages by updating real average and aggregate wages. Through July 2018, consumer prices are up 2.7% YoY, while wages for non-managerial workers are up 2.8%. Thus real wages have finally […]

August JOLTS report: thriving jobs market, and still-thriving Taboo against raising wages Tuesday’s JOLTS report once again confirmed the very good employment report from one month ago: Quits made a new all-time high Hires are just below their expansion high of two months ago Total separations made a new expansion high Layoffs and discharges improved, […]

 by New Deal democrat Decelerating trends in 5 long leading indicators I have a new post up at Seeking Alpha, “Five Long Leading Indicators ‘On the Cusp’.” The post follows up on my “Weekly Indicators” paradigm with graphs showing what the trends look like for aforesaid five series which have been hovering at the borderlines of […]

Real median household income rose 1.8% in 2017; poeverty rate declined The Census Bureau reported Sept. 12 that *real* median household earnings rose 1.8% in 2017.  Here’s their presentation graph: This is another score by Sentier Research, whose monthly estimates have accurately forecast the Census Bureau’s (very tardy) annual reports and showed, on an annualized basis, […]

W(h)ither Italy? I returned a few days ago from a conference in Italy where I spoke with some former economic  advisers of the Five Star Movement (M5S), which is now in a coalition government with the hard right wing Lega, formerly the separatist Northern League, which has now gone national, appealing to southern Italy with […]