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

Long leading components of GDP suggest continuing if sluggish expansion through 2025

 – by New Deal democrat As per usual, my focus in reporting on GDP is not the headline number, but the aspects which serve as leading indicators for the economy in the next few quarters. But to get it out of the way, real GDP increased at a 2.3% rate in the last quarter of […]

Resisting Rent Taking for the Better Good

Maybe you have seen Mr. Mom? There was a scene in there where Howard Humphries (President?) is doing a commercial for their product Schooner Tuna. The tuna with a heart. So, Humphries decreases the price during bad economic times. All of us here at Schooner Tuna sympathize with all of you hit so hard by […]

Economically weighted ISM services + manufacturing indexes forecast continued growth

– by New Deal democrat Because that services are about 75% of the economy, even if goods production is contracting, since the turn of the MIllennium that has not necessarily meant a recession is in the offing. The economically weighted average to the ISM services and manufacturing indexes has been much more accurate since then. […]

Hayek on The Use of Knowledge in Society

I recently reread Hayek’s most famous paper, The Use of Knowledge in Society, written in 1945.  I hadn’t read it in many years.   Page for page, TUKS is perhaps the most insightful economics paper ever written.  Every undergraduate economics major should read it.  I am not sure how many other papers written before 1960 […]

In December, the theme for new homes was “steady as she goes”

In December, the theme for new homes was “steady as she goes” in sales, price, and inventory trends  – by New Deal democrat To reiterate my theme from the past few months, I’ve been looking at new and existing home sales more in tandem, with a rebalancing of the market in mind. For that to […]

JOLTS report for December 2024

JOLTS report for December shows mild improvement in most metrics, anticipates stabilization in wage increases  – by New Deal democrat The monthly JOLTS reports give us a more granular look at the employment sector, but are delayed by one month vs. the jobs report. Like the jobs reports, most JOLTS series have shown deceleration for […]

Trump’s fake negotiations

Per Heather Cox Richardson: “. . . Donald Trump, sparked a crisis last Friday when his White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that he fully intended to go through with the trade war he had hyped on the campaign trail. Trump announced he would levy tariffs of 25% on most products from Mexico and […]

What were or are Americans’ main financial challenges since 2020?

Many people in a survey cited inflation as the reason for financial difficulties than any other cause. Inflation reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 and has yet to return to the Fed’s target of 2%. And as we all know, we were in amidst of a pandemic to which many economic entities took advantage […]