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

Now *that’s* good news: another blockbuster real retail sales report

Now *that’s* good news: another blockbuster real retail sales report Yesterday I wrote that the financial and production sides of the economy still looked very positive and that today’s retail sales number would be especially important. Well, they were very positive, clocking in at up 1.7% month over month in October. Even after inflation, “real” […]

Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

Letters from an American re-posted November 16, 2021Heather Cox Richardson Nov 17 Today, President Joe Biden hit the road to sell the benefits of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill he signed into law yesterday. In Woodstock, New Hampshire, today, standing at a bridge deemed structurally unsafe—one of the 215 unsafe bridges in New Hampshire—Biden […]

Coronavirus: regional variations and the winter wave

Coronavirus dashboard for November 12: regional variations and the winter wave There’s a glitch in 91-Divoc collecting Johns Hopkins data, so the State by State totals have not been updated for several days, but here is Our World in Data’s update for the US as a whole: As of yesterday, cases are up only 3.5% […]

Boosting Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall has a good post about Covid 19 boosters. His site www.talkingpointsmemo.com is the other site for which I pay actual money. Unfortunately, I see the good post is for subscribers (like me) only, so I will just have to show my respect by free using the hell out of it. Josh wants a […]

Dear Democrats: Yes, inflation is a problem

Dear Democrats: Yes, inflation is a problem [Update: I see where Larry Summers has obviously read my piece below, and says, “I agree with NDD!”  (Just teasing)] In the past few days, I have seen a spate of articles and tweets from prominent partisans and economists telling Democrats not to worry about inflation, either because […]

Weekly Indicators for November 8 – 12 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for November 8 – 12 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Surprisingly, given the big increase in the CPI (that is likely to continue via “owner’s equivalent rent”), almost all the indicators across all timeframes remain positive. As usual, clicking over and reading will […]

A Noah Opinion 1/N

I actually subscribe to a substack (even though I have a rule to never ever pay for web content). I have made 2 exceptions Talking Points Memo and Noahpinion. That written, one of the ways in which I find Noah Smith extremely stimulating is that I often, almost always, disagree with some of the many […]

Democrats need to take this seriously: elementary school closing for 10 days due to inadequate testing capacity

We are almost two years into this pandemic, and a K-8 school in Boston is being forced to close for 10 days due to lack of testing capacity.  First, capacity was inadequate to quell an outbreak: Curley’s school testing program became overwhelmed when more than 500 students a day needed testing. That meant some infected […]

September JOLTS report: slow progress towards a new equilibrium

September JOLTS report: slow progress towards a new equilibrium This morning’s JOLTS report covers September, at the beginning of which the Delta wave peaked and then gradually receded for the remainder of the month. It is also the month that the last of pandemic emergency benefits ended.  We did see the second consecutive decline in […]