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

So much winning!

Trump claims his tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. But you can’t create manufacturing jobs if no one wants to buy what you make. How’s that going? “Euro zone consumers are happy to ditch U.S. products if they are hit by tariffs in the course of a tit-for-tat trade war with U.S. […]

Gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

A bit of recent history for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Each week we send more than 50,000 complaints about financial products and services to companies for response. If another agency would be better able to assist, we’ll send it to them and let you (the consumer) know. Most companies respond within 15 days. […]

JOLTS report shows that the “soft landing” was intact – through March

I am not sure if people know what the Jolts Report is. So, I will offer up a descriptive definition; The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) program of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces monthly and annual estimates of job openings, hires, and separations for the nation. The JOLTS program also produces monthly state estimates for […]

Powell Howl

Late and brief thoughts on Trump’s assault on the independence of the Fed. It’s old news.now, but one way in which Trump assaulted norms, shocked investors, then flinched when asset prices moved was his discussion of firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. To orthodox macroeconomists and also me this is an extreme heresy. […]

Economics facts are political and hostile to the Trump Administration

Look, tariffs are just consumption taxes. American consumers pay for tariffs on Chinese goods, not the Chinese government, businesses or people. Trump pretends that exporting countries pay our tariffs. If he really believed that, he’d be happy to see Amazon post how much China is paying to get their goods into our market. But when […]

Repeat home sales confirm deceleration of prices for existing homes

 – by New Deal democrat Last week I noted that the deceleration in YoY prices in the existing home sales report was indicative of the ongoing rebalancing of the housing market, and I would be looking for confirmation in the repeat home sales reports this week. This morning, we got it. On a seasonally adjusted […]

Talking Climate Week

Robert Reich askes where are our past presidents and vice president? When it comes to the necessity of speaking out against this dangerous and detestable regime, where are Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and where are their vice presidents, Al Gore and Dick Cheney? Well, one did show up in San Francisco for Climate […]

Regional Fed manufacturing indexes average in April is recessionary, services on the cusp

 – by New Deal democrat This month the economic surveys by the five regional Feds which conduct them – New York, Philly, Richmond, Kansas City, and Dallas – have assumed additional importance as among the likely first warnings of impacts from T—-p’s trade wars.  This morning the last manufacturing survey for the month, from Dallas, was […]

Supply Chain and Manufacturing in the US

I will simplify this to a manner in which I have worked in for almost 50 years. The big issues around manufacturing are the Infrastructure (bldg., machinery, etc.), Overhead, and Labor. All of which is a part of the cost of manufacturing. Typically, you will find the infrastructure to be a onetime price. Overhead has […]

The art of the tariff deal

Apparently, MAGA means empty shelves and fewer jobs: “Trump’s tariffs on goods from China have disrupted trans-Pacific supply chains. U.S. officials are alarmed by companies’ dwindling inventories of critical raw-earth metals necessary for a range of economic activity; Beijing restricted the metals this month. In the three weeks since the tariffs took effect, ocean-container bookings […]