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

March consumer price inflation was still mainly about the dynamics of shelter and gas prices

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog New Deal democrat has been on top of the discussions of shelter and/or gasoline prices in February and also in January. He has been on top of these discussions which appear to be making the news moreso in April than earlier in the year. I have linked […]

Milei and dollarization

I try not to blog about stuff I don’t know much about, but sometimes I can’t help myself.  This is one of those times, so caveat lector.  This could be way off base.  Do not quote this to your friends.  Do not train your AI on it. Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has made noises […]

Open Thread, April 12 2024 Inflation Increases – Look to Gasoline and Shelter

Consumer Price Index – March 2024 (bls.gov) “The BLS index for shelter rose in March, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexescontributed over half of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1percent over the month. The food index rose 0.1 percent in March. The food […]

March CPI: Should We Be Worried?

by Dean Baker Center for Economic and Policy Research The inflation hawks took March’s CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet. There is no doubt that it was a disappointing report for those hoping we could put the pandemic inflation behind us. However, there still is not much basis for thinking […]

How much should a life-saving drug cost?

My former chairman used to tell the story of when he was a resident on rounds in the 1950s, he would hear a pounding sound in some of the patient rooms. When he looked in to discover the source, it was a nurse pounding the back of a patient who was stretched across the bed […]

Initial claims continue to be rangebound, and a positive for the near term forecast

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog [NOTE: After traveling all day yesterday, I decided to put off any comments on the CPI upside surprise until later today. Short version is that shelter continues its slow decent, gasoline picked up, and services are accelerating as one might expect in a strong economy with the supply […]

TSMC to begin Pilot Production Operations by mid-April 2024

More semiconductor news. Leading off, TSMC plant delays in Arizona are disappearing. In spite of earlier delays, the Arizona TSMC plant is now expected to be operational by end of 2024. Pilot Production to prove the manufacturing process will start mid-April 2024. Three months earlier, TSMC announced further delays at its $40 billion Arizona fab. […]

Building and Expanding semiconductor facilities

Biden is at it again. This time with Intel in AZ. With all the issues with passing a budget since earlier last year, I wonder how Biden and the Dems got this out of Congress. Must be some pretty good pork involved with these programs to get approvals. Companies are kicking in $240 billion in […]

Travelin’ man: Weekly Indicators for April 1 – 5 2024 at Seeking Alpha

– by New Deal democrat I neglected to post this over the weekend, so I will post it now…. Weekly Indicators: The Coincident Indicators Say ‘Soft Landing Is Here.’ – Long Leading Indicators Show Improvement – Short Leading Indicators are showing mixed results. – Coincident Indicators suggest a Soft-Landing scenario for 2024. “My “Weekly Indicators” update […]

Other Taxes on the Rich for Social Security? The Wrong Approach

I touched on a commentary at another site where the commentary was about healthcare. The sites author was advocating for the increase of the Social Security cap only on high income earners. There is a ground swell for taxing the rich more, which is acceptable to most. When we look at this closely, there is […]