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

September JOLTS report shows continued deceleration in all trends – except layoffs

September JOLTS report shows continued deceleration in all trends – except layoffs  – by New Deal democrat All of the major metrics in last month’s JOLTS report for August improved, most slightly, but the decelerating trend continued. In this morning’s report for September, that trend continued, as most of the metrics improved or declined very […]

The new month of data begins: residential construction positive, job openings negative, and manufacturing mixed

The new month of data begins: residential construction positive, job openings negative, and manufacturing mixed  – by New Deal democrat As usual, the monthly data started out with reports on the two most important production sectors of the economy, namely manufacturing (for October) and construction (for September). Additionally, the JOLTS jobs survey for September was […]

House resale price indexes confirm upturn in prices for existing homes, but do not negate combined price declines

House resale price indexes confirm upturn in prices for existing homes, but do not negate combined price declines  – by New Deal democrat We got more price information about the very important housing market this morning. Through September, the median price of home resales as measured by Case Shiller increased 0.9% monthly. For the FHFA […]

Coronavirus update through October 30, 2023

Coronavirus update through October 30, 2023  – by New Deal democrat No important economic news today, but it’s been a while since I took a look at the COVID-19 data, and there is an interesting trend, so let’s have at it! But first, some bad news. The most reliable data for infections for the past […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for October 23 – 27

Weekly Indicators for October 23 – 27 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. With half of reports in, Q3 profits for corporations have made a new all-time high. Meanwhile the stock market has made repeated new 3 month lows. The former is a long leading […]

Spending soars, income stagnates, savings sink like the Titanic

Spending soars, income stagnates, savings sink like the Titanic  – by New Deal democrat Real life intruded yesterday, so I didn’t put up any information about the Q3 GDP report. I’ll write in detail next week, but in the meantime there were 4 basic highlights: 1. Obviously it was an excellent report overall. 2. The […]

Jobless claims continue near expansion lows

Jobless claims continue near expansion lows  – by New Deal democrat Jobless claims continued very low last week, justifying taking down the “yellow caution flag” that had been in place for a number of months. Specifically, weekly new claims rose 10,000 to 210,000 – still a very low historical number. The more important four week […]

The bifurcation in the new vs. existing home market continues

The bifurcation in the new vs. existing home market continues  – by New Deal democrat Last week we saw that sales of existing homes plummeted to a 28 year low, save for one month in 2010; but prices for the very limited number of such homes on the market rose 2.8% YoY. This morning we saw […]

Stock prices and bond yields during disinflationary, deflationary, and reflationary periods

Stock prices and bond yields during disinflationary, deflationary, and reflationary periods  – by New Deal democrat This is an update of a post I wrote almost exactly 10 years ago. I’m doing this because of an important secular change I noticed that appears to have happened in the financial markets. Back when I first started delving […]

A further examination of the state of the economic tailwind

This is an excellent review of what has helped the economy stay stable during the pandemic and some of the issues mostly centered around demand and supply chain. Spend a few minutes here and read NDd’s reasoning. A further examination of the state of the economic tailwind  – by New Deal democrat With no big […]