(Dan here….) Via the New York Times comes an article on the Social Security shortfall. No explanations given for what the shortfall context is, and not till the end was a fix suggested. In comments calling SS a ponzi scheme (with no explanation) was common, or with the fix mostly was about lifting the cap. […]
Regional Fed indexes confirm that manufacturing is flat [A reminder: this week I’m on vacation, so light posting is the rule.] Earlier this week the Empire State Manufacturing Index went negative. This morning the Philly Index just barely avoided the same, reported at up +0.3 for June: The more leading new orders index declined to […]
Trucking suggests transport slowing, but has not rolled over I have been paying particular attention to the monthly report of the American Trucking Association, to compare its performance with rail, which has been sagging since the beginning of this year. A few other people are relying on the Cass Freight Index, but since that includes […]
Will Libra Destroy Cryptocurrenciees Or Vice Versa? Yesterday, Facebook released a White Paper on their planned supposed cryptocurrency, Libra, which has apparently long been under development. This triggered two stories in the New York Times, as well as lots of commentary by lots of people, including several posts by Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, who […]
Interesting there is not a peep on this in the US and literally hundreds of thousands of women gathered in the streets of the Swiss cities. 40,000 in front of parliament in Bern and the same was repeated in the cities of Lausanne, Geneva, and other places. It is said the turnout is greater in […]
May real retail sales positive, but industrial production remains in a shallow recession Retail sales are one of my favorite indicators, because in real terms they can tell us so much about the present, near term forecast, and longer term forecast for the economy. This morning retail sales for May were reported up +0.5%, and […]
Empire State Manufacturing: OUCH! I’m on vacation this week, so fair warning that there is probably going to be light posting! The only economic news of note today was the Empire State Manufacturing Index. Only one district, only one survey, in a noisy series, but just the same, the overall index fell to -8.6 and […]
I’ve been on the beat of income inequality since I started blogging here. My theory: We changed the way we make money from one of making it from producing (polishing rocks into tools) to one of making money from money. When you can make money from moving money, you don’t need to compete. Just buy […]