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

Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity

Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity Dan Guild follows presidential approval closely and uses it to model election outcomes, including State level as well as Congressional and Senate races. He’s been very consistent, and very good. For the past several months, his hair has been on fire about a real decline […]

September Income and Outlays, Durable Goods and New Home Sales

Commenter and Blogger, RJS MarketWatch 666 3rd quarter GDP, September’s income and outlays, durable goods, & new home sales The key economic reports that were released this week were the 1st estimate of 3rd quarter GDP and the September report on Personal Income and Spending, both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ….the week also saw the release […]

September Durable Goods: New Orders Down 0.4%, Shipments Up 0.4%, Inventories Up 0.9%

Commenter and Blogger RJS at Marketwatch 666; “September Durable Goods: New Orders Down 0.4%, Shipments Up 0.4%, Inventories Up 0.9%“ September Advanced Report Durable Goods Manufacturer Shipments, Inventories, and Orders, US Census The Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for September (pdf) from the Census Bureau reported that the value of the […]

Somewhere

We are all somewhere on the spectrum. Little doubt. Probably not on the one-dimensional line of dots or Verne’s Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert). More likely on the two-dimensional Venn when a three is needed. A point in space is needed to depict those of us who are alone out there in space; else they […]

Weekly Indicators for October 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for October 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. There are increasing signs that commodity prices are peaking, the latest candidate – but it may just be noise! – is the price of oil. And if commodity prices are peaking, that gives […]

À la recherche du socially necessary labour temps perdu

À la recherche du socially necessary labour temps perdu How many Trained Marxists™ know there is no “socially necessary labour time” in the Grundrisse? I didn’t. When researching the provenance of the term, I was surprised to discover that it was present in neither the Grundrisse nor Marx’s Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy. The latter book had a lot […]

New home sales confirm upturn in housing, while FHFA and Case Shiller suggest increase in house prices is slowing

New home sales confirm upturn in housing, while FHFA and Case Shiller suggest increase in house prices is slowing This morning we got three reports on housing sales and prices. Let’s start with the sales data. New home sales, while very noisy and heavily revised, tend to lead all of the other housing indicators, even […]

Democrats Introduce Plan to Fix Social Security

“Democrats Introduce Plan To Fix Social Security, the way we fixed the cat,” Commenter and Social Security Expert Dale Coberly assesses the latest plan coming out of Washington DC “Congress has a new plan to fix Social Security. How it would change benefits,” CNBC in the House. Dale was one of the creators of the Northwest […]