– by New Deal democrat With another likely government shutdown looming at the end of this week due to DHS funding, we are still playing catch-up from the last one that ended in November. This morning’s edition of stale data was durable goods manufacturing for November. One of the stories of the latter part of last […]
– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. The trends from last year are continuing so far this year. On the plus side, initial jobless claims are very low while stock prices continue near all time highs, and consumer spending is on a tear. On the minus side, the US$ started […]
ICE murdered an ICU nurse in cold blood yesterday. I would love to see ICE completely defunded and disbanded. Do we need immigration and customs enforcement? Sure. But this program isn’t doing that. It’s simply being used by the Trump Administration as a provocation to justify martial law. At the end of January 2026, the […]
I do not know if readers are keeping up with the news on employment or not. So, I decided to go back to December and grab one of Dean Baker’s commentaries on Manufacturing Jobs lost during Trump’s first year. Since the beginning of 2025, the economy has been losing jobs, This was not just in […]
There is no bargaining with Trump and expecting an equal agreement benefiting one’s self even if all you possess is given up to achieve what you desire. He will take what you have leaving nothing behind. Most recently, the Europeans stood up to Trump. Then suddenly Greenland was off the table. For Europe? Their efforts […]
– by New Deal democrat Now that we have the very important personal income and spending data through November, here is a look at the widely acknowledged monthly indicators that the NBER has highlighted in determining whether the economy is continuing to expand, or is contracting. The below link includes nonfarm payrolls (blue), industrial production (red), […]
– by New Deal democrat The news from this morning’s personal income and spending report for October and November was almost all good – with one major exception. To cut to the chase, real income rose slightly, but real spending rose substantially. Which, if you are following basic math, means that consumers dipped into their […]
– by New Deal democrat We will get the very important personal income and spending updates for the government shutdown months later this morning, which should finally tell us whether or not there was a mini-recession during that time. In the meantime, let’s take our regular weekly look at jobless claims, as to which, to reiterate, […]
Another interesting piece by Federal Tax Policy Vice President Erica York at the Tax Foundation. One premise . . . “an analysis suggests the administration could replace 56% to 73% of IEEPA revenue using Section 122 tariffs.” Over the past week, we received final tariff collections data for 2025 from the Treasury Department, a new Beige Book from the Fed, and a […]
– by New Deal democrat Originally housing permits and starts through December were supposed to be updated this morning, but that has now been put off another week. In the meantime, we did get some data, albeit stale, about the important leading sector of construction, in the form of the construction spending report through October. And […]