Steve Hutkins at Save the Post Office Continued discussions between the mailers who are faced with higher rates, PMG Louis DeJoy, and Congress. The mailers are in court as we read Steve’s excellent review of what is taking place. Also, PMG DeJoy has plans of increased prices for mailers also includes slower service and higher […]
Has Elon Musk Damaged His Portfolio By Buying Bitcoin? After tweeting repeatedly for some time about bitcoin and the originally satirical degecoin, both of which have gone up massively in the past year, on Feb. 8 Elon Musk put his money where his mouth had been and had his Tesla EV company buy about $1.5 […]
Commenter and writer RJS describes himself as “unencumbered by education, affiliations, beliefs or agenda and im not advocating anything.” Market Watch 666 The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 1.3% in January, as prices for finished wholesale goods were on average 1.4% higher, while margins of final services providers increased by 1.3% . […]
Strength in housing and cars, oh my! The two consumer goods which turn down before recessions, and up before recoveries, are houses and motor vehicles, in that order.Since January housing permits and starts came out yesterday, let’s take a look at both. First, while housing starts retreated slightly from their December levels, the more leading […]
You’re reading the right blog: 2021 economy edition “You’re reading the right blog” is an old chestnut (for me anyway) that I used to say from time to time to highlight a correct forecast that your (not so?) humble blogger made well in advance of more widely read sources.Well, please bear with me for one […]
The Biden admin has not yet made moves to undo elements of Trump’s trade war, and some parts of it may not get undone, perhaps especially some directed at China. But at least one move towards normalization with the rest of the world has just happened as the Biden admin has agreed to let the […]
Trade is great; trade is good. Since at least 2000 BCE, since the first inter-tribal (what was to become international) trading of horses, gold, silver, silk, foods, oils, wines, knowledge, technologies, …; trade between peoples has enrichened the lives of humans everywhere. Traditionally, trade was the great cross fertilizer. Without trade, our world would be […]
We Need a Plan for Militias A social trend can lie dormant for years, gradually expand and then suddenly explode as if following a hidden exponential growth curve. Revolutions work this way, and so do religious cults. Most of the time the curve is nipped in its early phase, but not always. It isn’t a […]
Jobless claims: huge upward revisions for the second week in a row The story this week is the repeated massive upward revisions to last week’s numbers This week, on a unadjusted basis, new jobless claims declined by 5,702 to 862,351. Seasonally adjusted claims increased by 13,000 to 861,000 (meaning last week’s original number of 793,000 […]
Blockbuster January retail sales presage gains in jobs (Dan here…late posting) [NOTE: I’ll report separately on industrial production later this morning. Real retail sales is my bellwether for the health of the consumer. And after 3 months of declines, we got a huge upturn in January. Before adjusting for inflation, retail sales jumped 5.3% – […]