In which I nitpick Prof. Jared Bernstein about a consumer “economic tailwind Last Friday, following the release of May’s personal income and spending report, Prof. Jared Bernstein, whom I follow religiously, wrote among other things about some economic headwinds and tailwinds, including the following: Finally, my personal favorite tailwind indicator [pointing to the below graph]: the close […]
Iran Nuclear Deal: Better Late Than Never? Monday has seen a curious coincidence that I have seen nobody else comment on regarding the status of the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal. On the one hand Iran has apparently now officially violated the agreement in terms of the amount of low level enriched uranium it has, going […]
Housing: Elizabeth Warren v. John Cochrane Noah Smith has a lot of praise for the economic policy proposals from Elizabeth Warren. I’ll mention only one: With costs for shelter eating a bigger piece of Americans’ paychecks, and local government paralyzed by incumbent homeowners, the country needs a big solution. Warren’s would combine incentives for raising zoning […]
As we start the second half of 2019 . . . (Updated: manufacturing almost exactly flat in June) First of all, I forgot to post a link to my post at Seeking Alpha on how a near-term recession is not likely to be centered on either the consumer and financial sectors of the economy, which are doing […]
by Joseph Joyce The Parting of Ways: The U.S. and China The agreement of U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping to restart trade talks put offs planned increases of tariffs on Chinese exports. But there is little doubt that the U.S. intends to move ahead with its intention to undo the economic integration that has been […]
The consumer is alright One of my big themes this year is that low gas prices can hide a multitude of economic sins. This morning’s data on personal income and spending confirms that the consumer side of the economic ledger is doing OK. Nominal personal income rose +0.4%, and nominal personal spending rose +0.5%. After […]
I looks as if I might disagree with Paul Krugman for barely more than once. I admit I am following Brad DeLong (and also that I surfed there from Kevin Drum). The discussion is over what hurt blue collar US workers, automation, China or two recessions. Yang says it is automation. Krugman disagrees in a […]
The New York Times: A Propaganda Machine for Trump The Times thinks it’s leading the forces of reason and light against Donald Trump, but it doesn’t have a clue. Every day their front page is festooned with the latest noxious Trumpian remark, followed by paragraphs of commentary on how unprecedented it is for a president […]
Rice Prices Rising In North Korea According to nkecon, on April 30 the price of rice in the DPRK was 4070 won per kg, but as of June 25 it had risen 26 percent to 5147 won per kg, the highest in many years. The price of corn has also sharply risen although not quite […]
by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for June 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Not a lot of movement in any individual indicators, but manufacturing in particular moved very close to a downgrade.