– by New Deal democrat I’ll post about the CPI later this morning. But unusually, the biggest news of the morning was initial jobless claims, which spiked to 263,000, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week. The four week moving average increased 9,750 to 240,500. Meanwhile, with the typical one week delay, continuing claims were […]
As a world leader, Rubio and Trump’s actions make no sense. The US is supposed to make it easier for officials from all nations who want to attend the UN headquarters. This decision (which Israel has welcomed) is detrimental to a peace initiative. According to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the visa decision “is a clear […]
A bit of Paul Krugman late in the afternoon. I am not going to talk Epstein even as I mention him. The story will come out bit by bit. It is reported better in other places than by Angry Bear. Guess I will post what one economist sees. What Economist Krugman discusses with a lead […]
– by New Deal democrat Consumer price inflation will be reported tomorrow. In the meantime, this morning producer prices for August were reported. Normally I don’t pay too much attention to producer prices – and I won’t this month, either. But let me put that in some context. In the past, when producer prices have outstripped […]
Understanding the latest BLS Jobs report. What they are stating is, the labor force is large at 140 million and companies tend to overstate employment. Probably for good reason. If they all stated what was really happening in their company and industry, we probably would have been in trouble far earlier. In which case, profits […]
– by New Deal democrat The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) for Q1 of this year was released this morning. Perhaps more importantly, the numbers for last year were finalized. This forms the “preliminary benchmark” for the actual reported changes to payrolls over that period which will show up in next February’s report for […]
Briefly: Two similar versions of the same tariffs case. What we are waiting on is whether SCOTUS will hear this case as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Court of Interntional Appeals ruling by a vote of 7-4. “Group of small businesses calls on Supreme Court to decide tariffs case,” SCOTUSblog. With […]
It’s been fashionable to beat up on blue states for their high taxes. But if taxes were the only reason people and companies decided where to locate, why are Boston, San Francisco and New York City not just deserts? I didn’t realize until we moved here that Rhode Island has been the long-time home of […]
– by New Deal democrat Let’s take a more in-depth look at the leading indicators for the economy in Friday’s abysmal employment report. As shown in the graph below, employment in goods has historically turned down first; indeed, in some recessions employment in services doesn’t turn negative YoY at all: Which is a shorthand way of […]
About 475 workers, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at a Hyundai Motor car battery facility under construction in Georgia. The workers were shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles. The return of ca. 300 to South Korea has been negotiated. At a time when Trump is demanded the foreign companies invest more in the […]