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

The Establishment Survey portion of the jobs report continued to be positive

 – by New Deal democrat AB: New Deal democrat reviews the Establishment Survey and again it differs from the Household Survey in a positive way. On Monday I wrote that the Household survey portion of the jobs report was recessionary for the second time in three months. But I pointed out that there was a […]

Q1 credit conditions showed no significant change

 – by New Deal democrat The Senior Loan Officer Survey is a long leading indicator, telling us about credit conditions that typically turn worse a year or more before the economy turns down, and improve just at the economy is ready to turn up. The big drawback of this series is that the information is […]

Inflation Is Scrambling Americans’ Perceptions of Middle-Class Life

Inflation Is Scrambling Americans’ Perceptions of Middle-Class Life, businessinsider.com, Jennifer Sor Yes, we have inflation. It is a given. Inflation is scrambling the lives of middle-class Americans. Income is not keeping up with the costs of maintaining a Middle-Class Life. I have sat here in AZ watching this play out in the nation — watching […]

Is Life Today Really So Bad?

Kevin Drum doesn’t believe Life is so bad. Kevin poses a number of reasons why things are actually pretty good. Think about it. We weathered a pandemic. For the first time government stepped in biggly and well beyond what was done in 2008 for people. Biden insured people who had no healthcare insurance pre-pandemic, provided […]

For the second time in three months, the Household jobs Survey was recessionary

 – by New Deal democrat First, a brief programming note. This week is particularly sparse in the new economic data department. The Senior Loan Officer Survey will be reported this afternoon, and on Thursday as usual we get jobless claims. Aside from that, nada. So I might take a day or two off. But I want […]

Trends in Electric Cars a Global EV Outlook 2024

A while back, I exchanged emails with the International Energy Agency. My goal was to find out what I could present, what I could not present, and also gain permission to utilize their charts and detail. They said yes. The detail here is on EVs in general and what countries are doing the most. As […]

Turning Retirement Accounts for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank

Each year in retirement, we take a certain amount of funds from our retirement accounts and it can become income and taxable. This is a bit different than when we were paying regular income taxes on our yearly income minus investments. Social Security can be taxed after certain income level percentages. I was curious about […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators April 29 – May 3

Weekly Indicators for April 29 – May 3 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Very little change this week in any of the indicators, but what there was had everything to do with the frame of reference, because all gas prices under $3/gallon have now dropped […]