Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Jerbs

“ADP also revised the August jobs number down, saying that the private sector lost 3,000 jobs that month. Ultimately, that means the private sector has lost jobs in three out of the last four months, per ADP estimates. “What’s more, since the start of April, when Trump first announced his moronic “Liberation Day” tariffs, the […]

Creating more academic dishonesty than it detects!

It has been a while since Angry Bear has posted one of Sandwichman’s piece. I have a similar ideology as Sandwichman has when it comes to manufacturing, etc. My approach is in the plants or in the actual supply chain. This is an interesting piece about academic issues. “Artificial intelligence creates more academic dishonesty than […]

Final August durable goods orders: more evidence that the AI related buildout is keeping the economy afloat

 – by New Deal democrat Oddly, even though the government shutdown has crippled most reporting, the Census Bureau did update the durable goods report for August today, and it does reveal an essential bifurcation in the state of the economy. First, here are the topline leading indicators: total durable goods orders (blue), core capital goods orders […]

A note on initial jobless claims

 – by New Deal democrat It’s Thursday, which typically means it’s time for the weekly initial and continuing jobless claims update. As we all know, the Federal government has shut down, because there is no budget for this fiscal year that began yesterday. BUT, I went back and checked, and during the extended government shutdown in […]

The Sanity of Student Loans

Oops my mistake. There is no sanity to student loans lasting a lifetime. Not when every other loan people have, get in trouble with, is forgiven through bankruptcy. It does not matter when or what they do is stupid, miscalculated, abused, spent unnecessarily, etc. The loans are forgiven. The only difference here is a student […]

Economic Outlook: Plastics Industry

OECD projects global GDP growth to weaken, with US facing steeper decline. Tariffs cited as a leading cause, impacting plastics industry and manufacturing. “OECD Economic Outlook: Plastics Industry Impact,” Plastics Today The plastics industry faces a challenging economic landscape as the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economic outlook reveals that while global growth proved […]

The art of the deal

Until this year, China has been a major consumer of US soybeans. But Trump’s trade war with China has resulted in a shutdown of that major market for American farmers and billions of dollars in lost sales. Trump has promised federal dollars to farmers to compensate for the loss of the Chinese markets. So taxpayers […]

ISM manufacturing index continues to show slight contraction, as new orders retreat

– by New Deal democrat Typically the new month begins with important manufacturing and construction reports; but this morning the construction spending report for August became the first casualty of the government shutdown.  The ISM manufacturing report has been a recognized leading indicator for the past 60+ years, although of diminished importance since the turn of […]

August JOLTS report was weak, but foreshadows little

 – by New Deal democrat In the past year, in contrast to much other data in the jobs sector, the JOLTS reports have been very much consistent with a “soft landing” jobs scenario. In the August report released this morning, the trend weakened slightly. As a quick refresher, this survey decomposes the employment market into […]