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

What is in Republican McCarthy’s debt-limit spending cut package?

Factbox: What’s in Republican McCarthy’s debt-limit spending cut package? Reuters, Andy Sullivan. Items Republicans and McCarthy are pushing for in a debt-limit package. The bill would essentially pair $4.5 trillion in spending cuts with a $1.5 trillion increase in the federal debt limit. Republicans are wanting to talk about government borrowing. “What’s in your wallet,” […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for May 1- 5

run75441’s footnote to NDd Weekly Analysis . . . The analysis by NDd is one of the most thorough ones, I read on a weekly basis. It sums up the week casting the numbers for the week in comparison to what is going on economically. What I see happening in the economy, NDd brings to […]

April jobs report: deceleration continues, with sharp downward revisions to previous months’ gains

April jobs report: deceleration continues, with sharp downward revisions to previous months’ gains  – by New Deal democrat My focus for this report continued to be whether the leading sectors and other indicators continued to decline, and whether the pace of growth continued to decelerate. While the deceleration in growth did occur – and substantially […]

Bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond goes after Container and Shipping Companies

Bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond goes after container shipping lines, freightwaves.com, Greg Miller Kind of an interesting story if true. Bed, Bath, and Beyond contracted for a specific number of containers to haul their ordered product from one destination to the US. From the way the allegations go, the Container Company/Shipper failed to provide the […]

Jobless claims hoist yellow flag again; employment and unemployment likely to show further deceleration tomorrow

Jobless claims hoist yellow flag again; employment and unemployment likely to show further deceleration tomorrow  – by New Deal democrat Initial jobless claims rose 13,000 to 242,000 last week, while the 4 week average rose 3,500 to 239,250. Continuing claims, with a one week lag, declined -38,000 to 1.805 million: This is right in the […]

How to end the debt ceiling stand-off democratically:  set fiscal policy through elections, not hostage taking

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats have so far refused to negotiate with House Republicans over spending cuts to resolve the looming debt ceiling crisis.  This tactic has successfully pressured Republicans into passing a bill with unpopular spending cuts that Democrats will quite rightly use to their advantage in the upcoming election.  But now that […]

The un(der)employment rate leads wage growth: 2023 update

The un(der)employment rate leads wage growth: 2023 update  – by New Deal democrat I had already planned on taking an updated look at wage growth today, but there was a little flutter on twitter about job openings and last week’s Q1 wage and benefits data, so that sealed the deal. To wit: as I used […]

What is Section 4 of the 14th, “The validity of the public debt of the United States?”

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) | National Archives, Section 4. “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State […]

March JOLTS report shows labor market about halfway to pre-pandemic normalization

March JOLTS report shows labor market about halfway to pre-pandemic normalization  – by New Deal democrat The title of this piece is an important to clue the relative nature of this morning’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover report for March. For the last several years, the jobs market has been a game of “reverse musical […]

Selection of In-Box Articles I Found Interesting

Another collection of articles on various topics from my In-Box. Puling quite a bit from Healthcare. Some interesting articles in this batch. I hope you take a few moments and read some of them. Most are not terribly long winded. I wander in the comments section to see what is being said on various topics. […]