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

Patagonia: Life Imitates Theory

“Patagonia: Life Imitates Theory,” Econospeak by Peter Dorman  When Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, completed the transfer of that company’s ownership to an environmental trust fund, it was front-page news across the country.  It came as something less than a shock to me, however, because I had described a very similar structure in a paper I […]

September consumer inflation; function of fictitious “owners’ equivalent rent”+ new cars

“September consumer inflation: primarily a function of the fictitious “owners’ equivalent rent” plus new cars”  – by New Deal democrat Since last November I’ve been hammering the fact that the official CPI measure of housing inflation, “owners’ equivalent rent,” seriously lagged, as in by a year or more, actual house prices as measured by the […]

Initial claims continue to rise along with gas prices

“Initial claims continue to rise along with gas prices“  – by New Deal democrat Last week I wrote that initial jobless claims may have ended their recent downtrend. This week appears to have confirmed that. Initial claims rose 9,000 to 228,000, and the 4 week average rose 5,000 to 211,500. Continuing claims, which lag somewhat, […]

The WASDE Is Out, May the Kernels Fall Where They Will

USDA has now dropped the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates in the much awaited October reporting. In a simple one liner, here is the gist of it – lower soy and corn yields this year (drought and lack of fertilizer – we saw this one coming), but wheat supply down, but higher than last […]

As the economy slows, so has producer price growth

As the economy slows, so has producer price growth  – by New Deal democrat Consumer prices for September will be released tomorrow. This morning the upstream producer prices were released. Total PPI rose by 0.4%, after two straight months of decline; but excluding those and December 2021, the lowest monthly increase since November 2020. Here are […]

“What News was in My In-Box”

Latest mixed bag of articles for the week touching on many topics. The very first article implies there was a grant to the Wuhan, China facility. Not sure why that would occur considering all the ruckus which occurred in the past. There is also an article on the Jacksom Mississippi water issues. Jackson is a […]

Nobel Peace Prizes 2022

Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded most recently. “The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 103 times to 140 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2022, 110 individuals and 30 organizations. Since the International Committee of the Red Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the Office […]

Scenes from the September jobs report

Scenes from the September jobs report by New Deal democrat No important economic news this week until Wednesday. I was going to put up a book review for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but it got too long and involved, so maybe tomorrow. Instead, here’s a look at some of the more important metrics I was tracking […]