The End Of The Embargo Against Qatar Yesterday Saudi Arabia announced that it is ending the embargo/boycott of Qatar, and though reportedly the UAE leadership is not entirely happy with this, they are going along with this as are the other nations involved in this, Bahrain and Egypt. This had begun in June 2017, reportedly […]
November construction spending confirms building surge One of my consistent themes in the past few months has been how the housing market is priming the economy for strong growth in 2021 as soon as the pandemic is brought under control. In that vein, November construction spending surged, confirming what we have already been seeing in housing […]
Weekly Indicators for December 28 – January 1 at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. In a sparse data environment, it continues to stand out how surprisingly well – under the circumstances – the economy is doing, and how primed it is to really take off once […]
Even More Questions What is capital? What power does capital have when invested in machinery, lands, agricultural improvements, etc.? What happens to individuals when they have experienced the accumulative power of money?
Because it had always been that way, none could think differently. From time immortal, labor was that what did much of the work of production. There is now a generation, maybe two, on this earth, most of whom will never know labor; will seldom see it performed. The energy for their world will not come […]
A Few Questions What constitutes the wealth of a nation? What is the source of all wealth and revenue? Does the method by which one receives income — whether wage, rent, profit or interest — indicate the ultimate source of the value represented by it? Do stores of money, machinery, manufactured goods or produce represent […]
Final jobless claims of 2020 continue to show a lack of progress New jobless claims declined for the second week in a row this week, but are still significantly above their recent pandemic lows, while continuing claims, seasonally adjusted, once again made a new pandemic low. There is a sizable but by no means certain […]
Professors Piketty, Saez, and Zucman! Have a minute? A minute to talk about rentiers, retirement, growth, and sharing? Thanks. Seems some sixty-percent of Americans think that things are going pretty well. For them, things are going pretty well. But, for the lower forty, things aren’t going well at all. Surely, this sixty – forty ratio […]
As the Senate decides whether to send an additional $1400 to US residents, there are two macroeconomic policy issues. One is whether aggregate demand stimulus would be useful. The other is whether we should be concerned about the budget deficit. I think that the case for fiscal stimulus is medium strong and the case for […]
The Four big coincident indicators as of the end of 2020 All of the important economic data for 2020 has already been released. In this final week only November house prices and one last week of jobless claims remain. So this is a good time to take a look at the current state of the […]