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

December consumer inflation: a return to pre-shutdown trends and still affected by the shutdown shelter kludge

 – by New Deal democrat We finally got our first “regular” CPI report since September this morning. Caution is still warranted, however, because the October-November kludge is still present in the base from which December’s monthly change was calculated. But the bottom line is that the series’ all reverted to their pre-shutdown trend, with the […]

September and October housing construction consistent with government shutdown recession, but also the possibility of “green shoots”

 – by New Deal democrat On Friday housing permits, starts, and units under construction were finally reported for the first time in four months, since September’s report for August. The bad news is that the report only updated through October, so we are still two months behind. The very qualified good news is that, since […]

December jobs report: ringing the alarm bells for imminent recession* (*with caveats)

 – by New Deal democrat [Note: Housing permits, starts, and units under construction were also updated this morning for September and October. I will post my remarks on this report on Monday; but in summary I can say it remained recessionary, with some possible “green shoots” that may indicate a bottom.] This morning’s jobs report for […]

November JOLTS report consistent with a weak, but sideways rather than negative, trend in the labor market

– by New Deal democrat Yesterday’s JOLTS report for November was not stale inasmuch as it was at best delayed by a week or two. But nevertheless, since it was for November it remains somewhat old news that can only help to confirm other data we have already received.  Last month I concluded that the […]

Jobless claims start the year where they left off: very low firing, problematic hiring possibly easing

 – by New Deal democrat Let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims, which are the best up-to-the-moment measure of the labor market. Initial claims rose 8,000 to 208,000, while the four week moving average declined -7,250 to 211,750. With the typical one week delay, continuing claims rose 56,000 to 1.914 million: Number of Initial […]

ISM services report for December powerful evidence that the services providing sector of the US economy remains in solid expansion

 – by New Deal democrat As I indicated yesterday and earlier today, we got some stale data on factory orders this morning, as well as a JOLTS report for November. I’ll take a look at those tomorrow. In the meantime, the big news of the morning has to be the very good ISM services report for […]

In December, truck sales tanked while car sales and private jobs (per ADP) increased

 – by New Deal democrat I will write about the biggest economic release of the day, the ISM services report for December, later. In the meantime, here are two other important data releases for December, one from a private source (ADP), and the other from the BEA’s GDP updates. As an initial matter, I don’t […]

Real wages and consumer spending have been crucial positives; here is the most updated look

 – New Deal democrat We are still suffering the aftereffects of the government shutdown, with no data today, but a helping of mainly stale government data tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow we get up to date private data from the ISM for services, and from ADP for private employment, along with manufacturers’ orders for October. On Friday […]

December ISM manufacturing report: continued contraction, continued stagflation, poor employment

 – by New Deal democrat We are still suffering the data aftereffects of the government shutdown. Normally we begin each month with reports on both construction spending as well as manufacturing. But the construction report even now has only been updated through August, and won’t be updated for September and October until January 21. And […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators for December 29 2025 – January 2 2026

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. As 2025 ended, all of the important trends seemed to intensify. The US$ is down 10% YoY by one measure, commodities are higher by the same or more, oil prices continued to fade, and the recent waning in the YoY growth of withholding […]