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

Dear Democrats: Yes, inflation is a problem

Dear Democrats: Yes, inflation is a problem [Update: I see where Larry Summers has obviously read my piece below, and says, “I agree with NDD!”  (Just teasing)] In the past few days, I have seen a spate of articles and tweets from prominent partisans and economists telling Democrats not to worry about inflation, either because […]

Weekly Indicators for November 8 – 12 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for November 8 – 12 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Surprisingly, given the big increase in the CPI (that is likely to continue via “owner’s equivalent rent”), almost all the indicators across all timeframes remain positive. As usual, clicking over and reading will […]

September JOLTS report: slow progress towards a new equilibrium

September JOLTS report: slow progress towards a new equilibrium This morning’s JOLTS report covers September, at the beginning of which the Delta wave peaked and then gradually receded for the remainder of the month. It is also the month that the last of pandemic emergency benefits ended.  We did see the second consecutive decline in […]

Annual Inflation at a 31 Year High

Commenter and Blogger RJS, MarketWatch 666. CPI Rose 0.9% in October on Higher Prices for Food, Shelter, Energy, and Vehicles; Annual Inflation at a 31 Year High And October at +0.94332% exceeds June at +0.90486% so it’s the biggest one month jump in over 13 years.. The consumer price index rose 0.9% in October, the greatest one […]

Disposable time, disposable population, disposable products

Disposable time, disposable population, disposable products DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME, DISPOSABLE TIME… Did I mention “disposable time”? Marx repeated disposable time seven time in paragraph (three paragraphs in the complete works) I’ve taken the above excerpt from. In English. In capital letters. That, and the fact that his theory […]

Nobody is (still) getting laid off

Nobody is (still) getting laid off [Note: This Nov. 10th consumer inflation report was very important, and not in a good way. So I plan on doing a more extensive post on it tomorrow, and I’ll probably put off the next “Coronavirus Dashboard” by Friday.] Initial claims declined another 4,000 this week to 267,000, and […]

Producer price inflation: it’s a gas!

Producer price inflation: it’s a gas! I normally do not pay much attention to producer prices, but with the huge increase in spending earlier this year and the ensuing supply bottlenecks taking center stage, the course of inflation has emerged as the most pressing economic issue. To recap briefly, with the second round of pandemic […]