Fiscal Dishonesty from Paul Ryan (Surprise!) We earlier noted that when our Treasury Secretary wrote this: Government receipts totaled $3,329 billion in FY 2018. This was $14 billion higher than in FY 2017, an increase of 0.4 percent…Outlays were $4,108 billion, $127 billion above those in FY 2017, a 3.2 percent increase. He was basically lying to […]
Who Is The Bigger Terrorist Threat: Iran Or Saudi Arabia? Yesterday’s WaPo had competing headlines about Iran and KSA (Saudi Arabia): Iran is described as a “potential” terrorist threat while the likely Saudi role in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is described as threatening the US-KSA relationship. The latter problem (likely to be smoothed […]
Many years ago, Goldman Sachs published research showing that, from about 1995 to 2004, more money had been taken out of S&P 500 companies in dividends and share buybacks than the companies had earned during that period. You would think Boards of Directors and Shareholders would know better than to do it again. You would […]
Fiscal Dishonesty from CNBC and Our Treasury Secretary Is Jacob Pramuk on the White House payroll? US budget deficit expands to $779 billion in fiscal 2018 as spending surges. The federal budget deficit rose 17 percent in fiscal 2018, according to the Trump administration. Spending jumped, and revenue only increased slightly following the GOP tax cuts. The […]
Subdued September inflation means real hourly and aggregate wages grow Courtesy of subdued gas price increases this year vs. one year ago, overall consumer prices rose only 0.1% in September vs. 0.5% one year ago (and 0.3% over the last two months vs. 0.9% one year ago). As a result, YoY CPI growth is down […]
The Political Economy of the Working Class The political economy of the working class is pluralist. The political economy of the working class is pragmatic. The political economy of the working class is critical. Karl Marx chronicled and contributed to the political economy of the working class. He did not invent, conclude or supersede it. […]
Housing’s most difficult comparisons in years begin next Wednesday After a real quiet week for news, next week we get retail sales, industrial production, the JOLTS report, existing home sales … and housing permits and starts. The week after, real residential fixed investment will be reported as part of Q3 GDP. Permits and residential fixed […]
Tracking Trump’s trade wars: inventories and intermodal traffic Here’s something I thought I would start to track: looking for evidence of the effects of Trump’s trade wars on manufacturing and distribution. Producers and distributors aren’t simply going to sit back and wait to absorb new tariff expenses: we should expect them to engage in as […]
U.S. Saudi Trade Donald Trump appears to be reluctant to investigate the murder of Jamal Khashoggibecause of an alleged trade deal? Donald Trump has said US investigators are looking into how Jamal Khashoggi vanished at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but made clear that whatever the outcome, the US would not forgo lucrative arms deals with […]
(Dan here…lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts) Kevin Drum discusses single parent households Disqus won’t let me comment, so I post my comment on this post hereI am honestly impressed that you didn’t mention lead. So I will. The single parent household peak came later than the murder peak — as one would expect. Single parent households last […]