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

Short Term Rentals and Airbnbs Impact on Long Term Renters and Homeowners

I got to this article about the Home Value Index Report after reading an Insider’s “The Fight Over Airbnbs Is Now Descending on Small American Cities,” businessinsider.com, Dan Latu. The article is about Airbnb rentals in Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman residents are trying to figure out what to do as it is driving up the prices […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators April 24 – 28

 Weekly Indicators for April 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Several important short leading indicators rallied this week. In particular, the stock market seems to think the worst is over (for the moment!). At the same time, several important coincident indicators of taxation […]

GAO: EV Infrastructure: USPS Plan for Potential Workplace Charging

GAO: Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: USPS Should Plan for Potential Workplace Charging – Save the Post Office Introduction Part of the plan as referred to in Steve Hutkins’ “EVs and S&DCs: USPS says you can’t have one without the other” was to have EV charging capabilities at the local post offices which would be available to […]

A mixed picture on real personal income, savings, and spending in March, and real total sales in February

A mixed picture on real personal income, savings, and spending in March, and real total sales in February  – by New Deal democrat As I’ve indicated a number of times recently, right now I consider the report on personal income and spending co-equal to the employment report as the most important monthly data. For March, […]

Weakening federal child labor laws

April 28, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI), legislatures in at least ten states have set out to weaken federal child labor laws. In the first three months of 2023, legislators in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota introduced bills to weaken […]

Healthcare Utilization, Costs, and Pricing Drivers – 2017 and 2021

Health Care Cost and Utilization Report, healthcostinstitute.org, April 2023 Year-over-year and 5-year cumulative trends in health care spending for individuals with employer-sponsored insurance. A detailed report by the Health Care Cost Institute covering the period 2017 – 2021 which includes the Covid pandemic. Decreases i total costs were seen during the pandemic. Still in the […]

Leading components of Q1 GDP paint a mixed picture

Leading components of Q1 GDP paint a mixed picture – by New Deal democrat As you probably already know, real GDP increased 1.1% at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate in Q1. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the economy improved throughout the period. The median GDP for the quarter where post WW2 recessions have begun was […]

Four week average of initial claims drops below “yellow flag” level, for now

Four week average of initial claims drops below “yellow flag” level, for now  – by New Deal democrat While GDP will get the lion’s share of attention today (and I’ll post on it later on), by and large it is a look in the rear view mirror. The more forward-looking data is weekly jobless claims. This […]