Recently, we have learned that the Russian military is vastly less capable than anyone imagined. Also, in three whole weeks, Ukrainians have markedly reduced the capabilities of the Russian military. Therefore, naturally many governments (including the German government) have decided they must spend more on their militaries to face the Russian threat. This makes no […]
A government to consist of three coequal branches, the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial was chartered in that order by the first three articles of the U.S. Constitution. Three coequal in order to provide checks and balances on one another lest any one of them should become too powerful was the reasoning. Perfectly understandable, […]
Housing permits and starts: still an economic positive – for the moment As you know, I consider housing, and in particular single-family housing permits, one of the very best long leading indicators for the economy. In the past year, however, there has been a unique divergence between housing permits and housing starts, necessitating some adjustments. […]
Industrial production nowcasts that the economy continues to perform well Industrial production increased in February by 0.5%, its highest reading ever with the exception of two months in 2014, and the second half of 2018. Manufacturing production increased 1.2%, also its highest ever with the exception of 24 months from late 2006 through early 2008: […]
Coronavirus dashboard for March 18: the BA.2 variant behaves just like original Omicron In the last several days, the 7 day average of cases in the US has increased slightly from 30,700 to 32,700. The rate of decline w/w has decelerated to only 10%. Meanwhile, deaths have finally declined to slightly below 1000 at 995. […]
On that “deep feeling that something is wrong…” Georg Simmel called it “a faint sense of tension and vague longing” connected with the modern preponderance of means over ends. What Simmel calls estrangement [We] feel as if the whole meaning of our existence were so remote that we are unable to locate it and are […]
Time was when being able to read and write was good enough to meet the demands of industry. After a while, workers needed to have an eighth grade, then a high school education to be of much value. That was then, back before the world became complicated. Today, in order to understand what is going […]
I was reading the usual MedPage Today articles. One commenter discusses the State of Florida under Governor DeSantis having a high Covid Death Rate. Fourteen of 15 states favored Trump in the election and have the highest Covid Death Rates. The article: “Florida’s Surgeon General Sends a Dangerous Message” | MedPage Today, Thresia B. Gambon, […]
Yet another new 50+ year low in continuing jobless claims After 3 days of a data desert, today there is a cornucopia of data: not just initial claims, but housing starts and permits, and industrial production as well. On top of that, a large stretch of the yield curve in the bond market is close […]