– by New Deal democrat In April total permits (dark blue in the graph below) declined -69,000 on an annualized basis to 1.412 million, while the less volatile single family permits (red, right scale) number declined -50,000 to 922,000. The slightly lagging and much more volatile starts number (gray, narrow) rose 22,000 to 1.361 million annualized: […]

– by New Deal democrat The final datapoint for today is industrial production, including its important manufacturing component.  Last month I wrote that “I suspect the big increases in February and March in manufacturing, like this morning’s retail sales numbers, were about front-running T—-p’s tariffs. Which means that like retail sales, production might have been […]

This is the latest article discussing US automotive manufacturing I could find right now. If I could find my old charts I would use to plan components, I could offer more up-to-date information. However, the US automotive industry builds millions of cars each year and accounted for 2.8% of all nonfarm jobs in the US […]

 – by New Deal democrat Next up in today’s slew of data is retail sales. This is one of the most important indicators I look at, because it tells us so much about consumers, and since consumption leads employment, it gives us information about the trend in that as well. In April, nominally retail sales […]

Port Optimizer – Control Tower Wabtec Corporation Shipping on the way to Los Angeles – Long Beach Docks. Container ships As you can see, there is a scheduled decrease. This could change dramatically in the next report. Port Optimizer – Control Tower Wabtec

Jobless claims: more of the same  – by New Deal democrat After a long data drought, there are many releases today. I’ll start with jobless claims. Initial claims were unchanged at 229,000, while the four week moving average rose 2,250 to 230,500. With the typical one week delay, continuing claims rose 9,000 to 1.881 million: […]

 – by New Deal democrat Now that we have April’s consumer inflation data, let’s update real wages for average American families. In April average hourly wages for nonsupervisory employees increased 0.3%, and aggregate payrolls for nonsupervisory employees increased 0.4%. Since CPI increased 0.2%, in real terms wages (light blue) increased 0.1% and aggregate payrolls (dark blue) […]

I do not believe there is any policy which will be successful when the environment changes like the direction of the wind due to kneejerk reactions of the presidency. Inflation did decrease by one tenth of one percent. But then is 2.3 or 2.4% really high? What has had a greater impact on the economy […]

Which of Piketty’s “Rich Get Richer” Theories Matters More? – by Steve Roth Wealth Economics For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. —Matthew 25:29, Revised Standard Version Steve Randy Waldman reminded me recently of this […]

 – by New Deal democrat Last month, I wrote that the March CPI report was the one we had been waiting for for the past three years. April’s was the second one in a row. To cut to the chase, there were no major components besides shelter which qualified as “problem children,” i.e., sectors with 4.0% […]