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

The economics of deportation

The Trump administration is threatening to deport >10 million people. These are people who, regardless of their immigration status, are contributing to the economy and jobs by purchasing goods and service (“job creators”) and contributing to social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, if they are undocumented, they will never see benefits to the […]

Watch Months-of-Supply! Housing

Watch Months-of-Supply! by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Both inventory and sales are well below pre-pandemic levels, and I think we need to keep an eye on months-of-supply to forecast price changes. Historically nominal prices declined when months-of-supply approached 6 months – and that is unlikely any time soon – however, as expected, months-of-supply is above 2019 […]

The New Economy and the Tariffs and Tax Breaks to Launch It

Since we have a new president who favors Tariffs, we should start talking about how those Tariffs will impact the US Economy and Citizens. The Tax Foundation offers up a brief explanation which should be readily understandable for Angry Bear readers. If Trump is able to pull this off and get it out of Congress, […]

United States’ Fiscal Policy in a Global Context

A comparison of US Fiscal Deficit prompted me to post this at Angry Bear. I believe it will be interesting to see how Trumps fiscal policies playout over the next four years. Check out The Guardian’s Economics Editor’s commentary on Trumps economic plans. The Issue: With continued high fiscal deficits likely for the foreseeable future, […]

Student Loan Updates 2024

It does not look like students holding loan debt and looking for relief will get any relief soon. Newly minted President Donald Trump is in the revenge mode. That would include help from Republicans. Like any new administration looking for revenge, this one will attack the weakest element. It does not mean that Student Loan […]

Investing in the hoax market

Trump says global warming is a scam and a hoax. He promises to cut federal funding for green programs and to ramp up fracking and drilling. He can certainly do the former, but business controls drilling and fracking, and the price of oil is dictated by international supply and demand, not the whims of the […]

Early Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Numerics for November 2024

Just some economic analysis about good economic growth in the month of November 2024. Something the public seemed to have missed along the way. 2023 and 2024 appears to have had good growth even with high Fed rates. See chart below. Commerce Data Show Strong Economic Gains Due to Americans Making and Spending More November […]

The Aftermath of the 2024 Election

US Citizens awaken to their new world. Prof. Heather Cox Richardson at “Letters from an American” has a good take on what is taking place three days after the 2024 Election. She states people are beginning to realize what will take place once a Trump presidency and a mostly Republican Congress begins to implement the […]

How the Fed helped Doom the Democrats

 – by New Deal democrat This is not a formal post about Tuesday’s election. But with the benefit of “revealed preference” a/k/a 20/20 hindsight, it’s pretty clear that the Fed rate hikes were an important part of why Kamala Harris and the Democrats failed. Because we may or may not be experiencing a “soft landing” […]