This was not the only time I have experienced an increase in tariffs or prices. It also happened during the Covid epidemic. Prices were increasing when there was no reason for them to increase. Packaging size was decreased somewhat. A downsizing that would be hard to notice. When we had issues a decade ago, one […]
“November ISM manufacturing report indicates deepening stagflationary contraction” – by New Deal democrat Normally we begin each month with reports on both construction spending and manufacturing. But even though th federal shutdown has been over for more than three weeks, data releases have been both very sparse and very stale. In particular, construction spending for August […]
– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. In the aggregate, consumer spending remains robust. On the other hand, as I pointed out yesterday with my aggregation of the various regional Fed reports on manufacturing and services, the largest sector of the US economy appears to be stagnant or even shrinking […]
I would guess most people do not know what it takes to pay off a student loan. Many of them are quite large. And over time a newly hatched employee just out of college will be paying a lot more than in the past. I do not believe the payment is proportional to the past […]
“Regional Fed manufacturing and services indexes for November show manufacturing rebound, continued rampant price pressures, and stagnant employment” – by New Deal democrat Although the federal government has resumed reporting economic data, it is spotty and woefully stale, from August and September. As a result, the two big sources for current data remain the regional Feds […]
Book Review: The World for Sale The one-handed economist Javier Blas and Jack Farchy (B&F) published this book in 2022, and I decided to read it after hearing them discuss it on a podcast. The book focuses on commodity traders “who barter the Earth’s resources” as it says in the subtitle. On the one hand, these […]
– by New Deal democrat Note: there was a good advance manufacturers’ new orders report for September this morning. I’m going to save discussing it until Friday, when I dissect the regional Fed reports, which are now all in through November. Neither building permits and starts, nor new residential sales, were updated this morning, which means […]
– by New Deal democrat With the end of the government shutdown, jobless claims are fully updated and back on their regular schedule. And this week, there was more of the same. Initial jobless claims were down -6,000 to a very low 216,000, and the four week average declined -1,000 to 223,750. With the typical […]
Inherited Economies Biden and Trump, Patreon – by Dean Baker Donald Trump may not be able to remember what things were like five years ago, when he handed the economy and the country to Joe Biden, but it is important that the rest of us do. As in so many other areas where Trump tries […]
This report from Environmental Health News (EHN) is 3= years old. I would regard it as relatively accurate in 2025. In Livingston County Michigan, the lakes were polluted with types of PFAS and many of the fish caught in lakes such as Strawberry lake carried PFAS. Unknown to many, people were eating the fish. I can not […]