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

Manufacturing, construction, and job openings all show an economy under stress

Manufacturing, construction, and job openings all show an economy under stress – by New Deal democrat As usual, we begin another month with important manufacturing and construction data. Additionally, the JOLTS report for September was also released. The ISM manufacturing index has a very long and reliable history. Going back almost 75 years, the new orders […]

Cheap Labor Farming vs Mechanical Technology

Cheap labor versus Innovation . . . “Dutch innovators vs Dutch farmers,” The one-handed economist, David Zetland. This past weekend, I visited the Dutch Design Week exposition in Eindhoven (home of Philips). There were  hundreds thousands of interesting (and sometimes baffling) displays, demos and ideas scattered around town. One that caught my eye was from a […]

Personal income and spending for September

While I was away . . . Personal income and spending for September Real personal spending increased +0.3% in September, while real income increased less than 0.1%, rounding to unchanged: Since May 2021, after the last round of pandemic stimulus expired, real spending is up 3.3%; but real income is down -2.0%: Real personal spending […]

The Humiliation Of Hu Jintao

The Humiliation Of Hu Jintao  The recently completed onec-every-five-years Party Congress in China, which confirmed Xi Jinping for a third term as General Secretary of the party, punctuated his apparent assumption of essentially total power by humiliating his predecessor, Hu Jintao, in its final session. At the beginning, he was forced to leave the session, […]

Emissions Gap Report for the United States and Globally

Two posts are at the bottom of this one. Just talking about on-purpose emission of exhaust by pickup trucks which have had the emissions control devices altered. They did this to blow black exhaust out of their exhaust. This report on Treehugger is an update on how well the world is doing. Simple terms, it […]

New Deal democrat’s weekly indicators for October 24 – 28

Weekly Indicators for October 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators Post is up at Seeking Alpha. Slowly even more indicators are deteriorating in several timeframes. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to date on the economy, and bring me a little reward for my […]

Global Housing Price Slump and Other Economic Issues Early 2023

“A global house-price slump is coming,” The Economist, edited. I find this article to be interesting although I do not agree with much of it. Prices are an issue; but so are interest rates. Much of the costs of housing can also be from house manufacturing waste. I was watching my new home being built. […]

Q3 GDP: good news for now, bad news for the future

Q3 GDP: good news for now, bad news for the future  – by New Deal democrat I have to keep this note brief, since I am on the road. As you presumably already know, real GDP was positive for the Third Quarter, up 2.6% at an annual rate: Subject to revisions in the next several […]

Understanding Inflation using Gasoline Prices

Seems that gas, fuel, gasoline is being used as a marker to understand just how horrible we have it as a result of the current inflation. It’s just sooooooooooo terrible. I’ll just say this. As a marker of inflation and our personal economic experience all it shows is how terrible we are at remembering. Unfortunately […]