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

How Redistribution Makes America Richer

By Steve Roth (originally published at Evonomics)t https://evonomics.com/how-redistribution-makes-america-richer/ You hear a lot about bottom-up and middle-out economics these days, as antidotes to a half-century of “trickle-down” theorizing and rhetoric. You’re even hearing it, prominently, from Joe Biden: They’re compelling ideas: put more wealth and income in the hands of millions, or hundreds of millions, and you’ll […]

March housing permits and starts – don’t get too excited

March housing permits and starts – don’t get too excited Don’t get too excited about this morning’s big jump in housing starts for March. In the first place, it wasn’t confirmed in either total or single-family permits, which both remain down from December and January, and the latter of which is the least of all […]

The politics of vaccine-stretching

When the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were first approved, it was clear that they were highly effective at preventing covid and that they would be in short supply for months.  The clinical trial data also suggested that, at least in the short-run, one dose of the vaccines would provide almost as much protection against covid […]

Industrial production for March disappoints – but only on the surface

Industrial production for March disappoints – but only on the surface As an initial note, retail sales for March blew out to the upside, but as expected due to cosnumers’ spending their latest pandemic stimulus checks. People visit sites like stimuluschecker.org to check the status of their stimulus payment or verify their eligibility. This does […]

Retail Sales Rose 9.8% in March as Consumers Spent Stimulus Checks

March consumer prices, retail sales, industrial production, & new home construction; February’s business inventories RJS at MarketWatch 666 Seasonally adjusted retail sales increased by 9.8% in March, the second largest jump on record, after retail sales for January and February were both revised higher…the Advance Retail Sales Report for March (pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that our […]

Jobless claims break on through – 1M+ jobs report for April looks likely

Jobless claims break on through – 1M+ jobs report for April looks likely As I have said for the past few weeks, new jobless claims are likely to the most important weekly economic data for the next 3 to 6 months. With the number of those vaccinated continuing to increase, I have been expecting a […]

Weekly Indicators for April 12 – 16 at Seeking Alpha

 – by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for April 12 – 16 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The big call I made last year is that conditions were setting up for a Boom this year, once the pandemic started to be overcome. Well, almost half of all Americans have […]

4-Day Work Week

From Treehuggers; “Spain To Try Nationwide 4-Day Workweek” A shorter workweek has been suggested s a means of improving work-life balance and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Freelance Writer, Olivia Rosane. The topics of a shorter work week and climate control was brought up by Sandwichman at Econospeak with the former being touted numerous times by […]

That Prices were up the most since 2012 is probably also noteworthy . . .

CPI Rose 0.6% in March on Higher Prices for Energy and Transportation Services, R.J.S, MarketWatch 666 The consumer price index rose 0.6% in March, the largest monthly increase since August 2012, as higher prices for fuel, utilities, transportation services, financial services, and used vehicles were only slightly offset by lower prices for clothing and for communication commodities…the Consumer Price Index Summary from the Bureau […]