November Jobs Report: good month, same caveats HEADLINES: +228,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1% U6 underemployment rate rose +0.1% from 7.9% to 8.0% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now: rose +53,000 from 5.175 million […]
Lifted from comments Denis Drew points us to: Americans are drowning in debt. Here’s where they have it the worst. By Christopher Ingraham, December 8 at 1:58 PM https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/08/americans-are-drowning-in-debt-heres-where-they-have-it-the-worst/?utm_term=.45e91dd1c24f “Nationwide the data shows that 33 percent of Americans hold debt that is currently in collection. The median amount of debt in collections is $1,450.” “At […]
David Zetland writes at Aguanomics Stop talking affordable water and start talking poverty Circle of Blue published this long, aggravating article of the efforts of activists, water managers and (far too many consultants) to “find a compromise” on the price of water that will cover system costs without “burdening the poor.” Let me solve this […]
An astute progressive critique of the Trump Administration from … CNBC?!? John Harwood of that well known lefty outlet, …. ummm, CNBC …. writes this morning that “Trump has Forgotten his ‘Forgotten People’:” He forgot them on health care. Jettisoning his campaign pledge to “take care of everybody” regardless of income, he proposed cutting federal health […]
by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) ISM Reports Show Broad Economic Strength: Latest Nowcasts are Strong The latest ISM reports are out and both show broad strenght. The new orders and production component of the manufacturing report were very strong (up +.6 to 64 and +2.9 to 63.9, respectively). The anecdotal comments were very bullish: The service […]
Has Dean Baker Joined Team Republican? The dishonesty ab out the Trump tax cut for the rich from certain Republican leading conservatives are been extensively noted so let’s not go there. But why is Dean Baker writing this? There are two ways in which we can say that a deficit/debt is will hurt our children. The first […]
(Dan here…lifted from an e-mail) I’m not registered with seeking alpha so I cannot read the whole article (I had sent), but what I read looks a lot like what I’ve written over the years. Here are some statements which, working off memory, I have written posts about and which I think are supported by […]
Also know as collectors vintage bitcoins. This is a crazy idea with no redeeming social value. BitCoin is valuable only because people expect it to be valuable in the future. I am sure there is BitCoin bubble, but it wouldn’t be that strange for for something useless to be valuable. Cancelled stamps may be valuable. […]
Flynn Bails, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up I haven’t seen anything yet to convince me that the Putin-Trump collaboration was a big deal. Ugly and unprincipled, sure, but politically consequential, probably not. A contrary view, expressed by Harry Litman in today’s New York Times, is that this is the beginning of the end for the […]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/business/economy/tax-plan-economists.html?_r=0 Douglas Holz-Eakin balanced with Kimberly A. Clausing in the NYT. Link in the picture. To think that looting could be so calmly described with ballance.