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

Excellent October housing report is good news for employment

Excellent October housing report is good news for employment I’ll have a more comprehensive report up at Seeking Alpha, and I’ll link to it when it goes up, (UPDATE: It’s finally up, here ) but in the meantime let me just share the least volatile most leading component which is single family permits: These made a new […]

Liberal economists are open to persuasion.  What about conservatives?

by Eric Kramer Liberal economists are open to persuasion.  What about conservatives? There are many examples within the economics profession of cases where liberals have been persuaded by conservative arguments that raise doubts about the value of government intervention in markets. Harold Demsetz argued that it is a mistake to call for government intervention simply […]

Big data helps monopolies, not you

by David Zetland (originally published at One handed economist) Big data helps monopolies, not you Economists say competition in markets rages from “perfect” (no company can charge a price over cost without losing 100% of its customers to another company) to “monopoly” (one company sets prices to maximize profits). Two caveats are important. First, the monopolist […]

Weekly Indicators for November 11 – 15 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for November 11 – 15 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Although a few indicators backed off some this week, the overall tone, ex-manufacturing, across all time frames is positive. You may be reading a few takes today about the poor nowcasts out of […]

Weekly Indicators for November 4 – 8 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for November 4 – 8 at Seeking Alpha  My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The biggest story of the week was the move higher in long term interest rates. This means that the “yield curve inversion” you’ve read so much about in the past year is over. […]