About the time I was talking to USC’s Associate Director and Alan Collinge at the Student Loan Justice Facebook site, Michael “The Guardian” reporter was talking to students there about payback issues. Everyone is concerned about the startup of loan paybacks. It is a serious issue for most. ‘There’s no way I can pay it’: […]

Back to the basics: how do initial claims, total hours worked, aggregate real payrolls, and job growth relate?  – by New Deal democratFed One of the most important reasons why big Fed rate hikes and big downturns in things like housing starts and credit provision haven’t translated into a recession this year (so far!) is […]

Initial claims: yellow caution flag turns more orange  – by New Deal democrat Initial claims, which were one of the most positive indicators of all last year, have turned darker in the last several months, and are edging closer to triggering their recession warning levels. Claims were unchanged at a revised 264,000 last week, the […]

This commentary is along the lines of what I have been taught when I was consulting with Ingersoll Engineers in Rockford and which is now extinct. My background includes manufacturing planning at all levels domestically and internationally for US and foreign companies. Labor’s wages are a small part of the Cost of Manufacturing, etc. Spencer […]

Much like Kip Sullivan in Minnesota/PNHP who Angry Bear has featured, Kay Tillow of Kentucky is a Single Payer activist. You will find Kip saying similar things about Medicare Advantage, etc. And we are all a little bit different attempting to reach the same goals . . . preventing the privatization of Medicare and achieving […]

Real wage growth leads spending; meaning spending seems likely to stall after an increase over the next few months  – by New Deal democrat No big economic news today, so I wanted to pick up on a subject I began a week ago Monday; namely, taking a detailed look at personal spending, i.e., consumption. To […]

Freya’sday Five Elements … I caught up with Reich’s Substack Commentary by Robert Reich on Homeless on the Desert. June 16, 2023 in g’da said New to the blogroll lineup, from Robert Reich’s Substack and the Smirking Chimp The Washington Post calls Trump’s vision for a second term “authoritarian.” That vision includes mandatory stop-and-frisk. Deploying the military to fight street crime, break […]

I live halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. Pretty much what you would call desert if you were new to the area like I am. Water is an issue as much of it comes from the Colorado river. The limits to draw water from the Colorado are still being determined or in a flux. The states […]

Housing under construction increases back close to record; good economic news, but ammunition for a hawkish Fed  – by New Deal democrat Last month I wrote that “the Fed’s sledgehammer attempt via one of the most aggressive rate hike campaigns in its history appears to be on the verge of failure. That’s because housing construction, […]

Big business organization in the form of the Chamber of Commerce and a Phamaceutical company are joining together and taking on the government to keep it from negotiating pharmaceutical pricing. Chances are well in favor of this ending up in SCOTUS based upon a moneyed corporation willing to spend its way into court. A resource […]