Mark Hertling is one of the people I follow on Ukraine. He is a staunch advocate for arming Ukraine, but he recently had a tweet thread defending what some see as the overly cautious and slow approach taken by the United States. Here are some tweets from his thread: Now, maybe we should be sending […]
Mike Konczal and Niko Lusiani at the Roosevelt Institute take a closer quantitative look at the sources of inflation the last two years: This research brief is the first to explore the size and distribution of markups (essentially the difference between sales and marginal costs) and profit margins across 3,698 firms operating in the US […]
I do not have an exact date when this was written. It appears to have been update May 2021. I find it interesting as US automakers are making moves to switch from combustion powered vehicles to electrically powered vehicles utilizing rechargeable batteries to provide the power. US automaker Ford is so committed to this conversion; […]
I have two thoughts. The first is that major party presidential candidates would be wise to stop participating in big dollar fundraising events. The second is that we can identify the effect of money on political success, but usually assume that correlation is causation. I think that three major party candidates have seriously hurt themselves […]
Weekly Indicators for September 19 – 23 at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators column is up at Seeking Alpha. For the third week in a row, interest rates increased, and gas prices, along with the prices of other commodities, tumbled. While the decline in gas prices is good, the downturn in […]
Tom Schelling Is Rolling Over In His Grave, Econospeak By Barkley Rosser Thomas Schelling got his Nobel Prize in economics for saving the world from global thermonuclear war in the 20th century, when many thought it was inevitable. Rival nuclear game theorist, John von Neumann, said to bomb the Soviets as soon as possible, like, […]
As usual it is best to just click and read as the column is well crafted and I can’t summarize or explain well. The topic? “On Monday, President Biden announced that Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, a biotech executive who previously worked at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as Darpa, would be the first […]
Dana Millbank at the Washington Post points us to JD Vance, the MAGA Republican from Ohio running for a Senate seat in Congress and a potential American Julius Caesar. “‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: They have come to resurrect Caesar. MAGA Republican leaders take umbrage at being accused of ‘semi-fascism,‘ which is understandable: […]
It is refreshing to see Dean Baker using one of the words I use to describe what the FED does when they are hiking Interest Rates. Those FED actions do not create results over night. Because they can’t, read on. Powell appears to be frustrated by the lack of economic slowing. Maybe there are other […]
Focusing on the short end of the yield curve – by New Deal democrat When most analysts talk about yield curve inversions, they typically mean a measure of the 10 year bond vs. a shorter maturity like 3 month or 2 years. These certainly have merit – in fact the 10 year minus 2 year inversion […]
“Computer experts urge Georgia to replace voting machines,” (msn.com), Kate Brumback Should Georgia replace present voting machines with paper ballots? CNN — A Republican County official in Georgia escorted two operatives working with an attorney for former President Donald Trump into the county’s election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached, newly obtained video shows. […]
Summary: More on the Ukraine war, Russia calling up soldiers, Putin’s referendum, and a threat of nuclear consequences if the referendum is interfered with by something, someone, and his imagination. President Biden answers Putin’s threats. New York AG Letitia James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the family. […]
“Diesel Ram Owner Crushes Truck After New Jersey DEP Orders Deleted Emissions Fix,” (msn.com), Caleb Jacobs One diesel pickup truck owner was hoping to sell his modified diesel engine pickup truck. Unfortunately, the State of New Jersey DEP would not be issuing a new title unless he restored the pickup truck to its former EPA […]
Jobless claims: the positive trend continues – by New Deal democrat For yet another week, initial jobless claims continued their reversal from had been in an almost relentless uptrend from spring through early August. This week initial claims rose -5,000 to 213,000 from a revised 3 month low of 208,000, while the 4 week average […]
Review of “Demagogue” “Demagogue: The life and long shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy” by Larry Tye is a particularly timely read as the nation continues in the grip of another political bully, Donald Trump. The parallels in their methods are striking and the degree to which McCarthy held the nation in thrall during the 1950s […]
Herd consolidation seems to be the main point being plugged right now as the total herd population of beef cattle is dropping and will continue to drop well into next year. This mirrors the 2014 cattle year where we had a steep downturn in total US herd. Next year will be more of the same […]
September Update: “COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate”| ACA Signups, Charles Gaba As always, here’s my (Charles Gaba) methodology: County-level 2020 Population data via U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Census County-level 2020 Trump vote data via each state’s Election Commission or Secretary of State websites County-level Case & Death data via Johns Hopkins University Center […]
Chandra Childers at Economic Policy Institute reports on household income: “Household incomes have fallen since 2019 despite growth in workers’ earnings“ “On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2021 household income and household earnings data for states from the American Community Survey (ACS). National averages hide the wide disparities experienced by workers and families across […]
August existing home sales: confirmation that house prices have peaked Existing home sale by themselves are not that important economically, since there is a mere transfer in ownership, rather than a complete build. But they can help verify turning points, and in this case very importantly as to prices. But first, sales declined slightly (-2,000) […]