– by New Deal democrat Back in the “before” days, as in January, before the Iran war, I wrote about how low gas prices were actually a tailwind for the economy. Because since the start of the Millennium over 25 years ago, they had only been so low compared with average hourly wages on only 3 […]

I don’t know if he has the legal authority to do this, but does it even matter with Trump?  Domestic prices will rise if 1) foreign supplies fall and 2) domestic production is diverted to fill demand overseas.  Trump could keep domestic supplies from being diverted and we could still use world markets to fill […]

Gasoline Goes Galactic: Prices Jump, Diesel Spikes, and the White House Feels the Burn Thank you President Trump! This is about a week old. It still has relevance to what this fool is doing to the US Economy. The national may yet slip into a recession. “Oil Prices Post Biggest Monthly Surge in History,” OilPrice.com. […]

After zigging upward last week, interest rates zagged downward – but not as much – this week, enough to change the ratings on some interest rate sensitive indicators, like mortgages. And consumers continue to spend, despite all the shocks and sluggishness in things like the labor market in the past 15 months. Partial of “Weekly […]

Pres. Trump has found a way to impact the global economy. And he did it by attacking Iran. His attack will also have a huge impact on the United States and every other country using oil or its byproducts. Looking for a recessional economy in the near term even with secure oil resources. Paul Krugman […]

 – by New Deal democrat I described two months ago as “the month the birds came home to roost.” Last month, pace Edgar Allen Poe, I said the birds were screeching “recession!” This month, Poe’s birds decided to play with us, screeching instead: “Nevermind!” This was a good report with mainly good internals, with one […]

 – by New Deal democrat  With the stock market flailing around trying to keep its head above water, jobless claims along with consumer spending are the only two metrics that solidly support a continued economic expansion (ok, maybe ISM manufacturing is trending in that way as well). But to the point of this post: last […]

 – by New Deal democrat While much of the official government data is still delayed, months after the end of the shutdown, privately sourced data remains fully up to date. And March data started out with the ISM manufacturing index, which was our second piece of (mainly) good news of the morning. The headline ISM number […]

 – by New Deal democrat After all these months, we are still feeling the effects of the government shutdown last fall.  Normally construction spending is released on the first day of the month for the second previous month – in today’s case, that would be for February. But half a year after the shutdown began, […]

“Ask an Analyst: What makes a donor state?” USAFacts States contribute to the federal budget primarily through residents’ federal taxes and through business taxes on local industries. In return, states expect federal support via programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (or CHIP), transportation and education funding, and contracts and grants to local businesses […]