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

Uneasy Lies The Head

All around the world, we are seeing heightened uneasiness; stress on governments, economies, and societies. What’s going on? A lot has changed these past few decades, some of which we know of, possibly understand a little. There may be others we are not yet aware of. We are learning more about global warming (a.k.a, climate […]

December jobs report: ho ho ho, Santa brought a gift – but with a couple of lumps of coal mixed in

– by New Deal democrat My theme for the past several years as to employment has been “deceleration,” as in a gradual cooldown from white hot to red hot to hot to warm. But at some point past “warm,” we get to lukewarm, and then cool, and then chilly. In other words, if it continues […]

Initial Jobless Claims Declined

Jobless claims still rocked by seasonality; native born unemployment rate of under 4% forecast  – by New Deal democrat Due to today’ official Day of Mourning for the late President Jimmy Carter, initial and continuing claims were released yesterday, but since I didn’t cover it then, let’s catch up now on the normal day. It […]

Housing Bubble, Mortgage Debt, and GDP

This is a good take on the percentage of debt many homeowners are carrying as a percentage of GDP. I would think somewhere along the line, individual income plays a role in all of his. What Bill is telling us is the same hazards of lending are not as pronounced this time. Either banks, etc. […]

Government bailout for for-profit healthcare

The right-wing mantra is that private enterprise is always more efficient than government. As far as I can tell, private enterprise is more efficient at extracting dollars from citizens, yes. And banks have proven to be efficient at extracting bail-outs when their judgement leads to insolvency. Recently, the bankruptcy of for-profit Steward Health Care closed […]

First Look at Several Early Reporting Local Housing Markets in December

1st Look at Local Housing Markets in December – by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Newsletter NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to December 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available). This is the first look at several early reporting local markets in […]

Heavy Weight trucks have a record of turning down by -10% or more before a recession

Truck sales sound a warning  – by New Deal democrat Twenty years ago Prof. Edward Leamer made a big splash with a speech to the Fed in which he proclaimed that “Housing IS the Business Cycle,” highlighting how downturns in the housing sector tended to lead recessions by an average of 7 quarters. For today’s […]

ISM Services are ~ 75% of the economy, Large Enough to Cover a Downturn in Goods

Economically weighted ISM indexes for December forecast continued expansion  – by New Deal democrat We got two significant economic releases this morning. First, let’s take a look at the ISM services index. I’ll examine the November JOLTS report separately. Recall that services are about 75% of the economy. Thus, even if goods production is contracting, […]