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

Wages and Inflation

Are wages keeping up with inflation? – USAFacts AB: According to USAFacts Wage have been keeping up with inflation currently. Some simple graphs and words. Relatively easy read for everyone with the necessary graphs as support to the words. It did not seem like it was occurring. Yes. From February 2024 to February 2025, wages […]

The US bond market sends a warning; has the US crossed an economic Rubicon?

 – by New Deal democrat Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has called T—-p’s tariffs “an act of warfare against the entire world.” Perhaps it is not surprising that in the past week, the entire world has responded. Among other things,  per Eric Michael Garcia, “China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators for April 7 – 11

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. In this time of exogenous shock to the economy caused by the whims of one man, it is especially important to keep laser-focused on the hard data. And the first hard data that will tell you what is happening is the high […]

Real hourly and aggregate pay for nonsupervisory workers increased in March

 – by New Deal democrat  With yesterday’s CPI report, we can update two important measures of ordinary American workers’ well-being, that also serve as short leading indicators: real average hourly earnings and real aggregate nonsupervisory payrolls.  There have been two months since the pandemic lockdowns five years ago, including last June, where there were very slight […]

China holds a lot more cards than Trump may think . . . Tariffs

Tariffs . . . are a marvelous distraction while Trump hides what he really wants to do. Everybody is looking in the wrong direction, mesmerized by the shiny coin as Trump calls off tariffs for now. Trump does not care about America. He cares about himself and stuffing away $billions. Time to buy on the […]

Trump wants you to pay higher utility bills

During his first term, Trump railed about energy-efficient plumbing. He claimed he had to flush his toilet 10-15 times and was forced to stand in the shower five times as long. I have no idea what he’s talking about. Sounds like what he needs is a plumber. In the event, the Biden Administration mandated resource-conserving […]