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

Preliminary benchmark revisions wipe out 30% of jobs growth in the past 16 months

 – by New Deal democrat Every month I write about the Jobs Report. But while it is timely, it is only an estimate. There is an actual census of over 95% of all employers that also gets reported, called the QCEW, and it is the “gold standard” of actual jobs growth (or loss). Its two […]

Betting on climate change

Believe it or not, there are still some folks who think climate change is a hoax. How many are financially invested in that belief, I don’t know. I do know that folks who are currently in the business of making money in the insurance industry *do* believe that climate change is real. They’re no longer […]

Two years ago today, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law

By Isabel Soisson The Copper Courier AB: This piece on the IRA cover quite a bit of territory discussing the Inflation Reduction Act. There is still more that was accomplished under the Biden Administration with the American Rescue Plan 2021 Act. Who would have thought an old president suffering from dementia could have accomplished so much? […]

Why vilify the oil and gas industry? Because It Deserves to Be . . .

by Emily Atkin Heated World The richest man in the world has a new message about climate change: It’s real, but don’t knock the industry most responsible. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry,”  Elon Musk said while speaking about climate change during his two-hour conversation with former president Donald Trump last […]

Real hourly wages, median income, and aggregate payrolls: update for July

– by New Deal democrat It’s a slow economic news week, so don’t be surprised if I play hookie tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime, now that we have July’s inflation data, we can update some “real” consumer well-being indicators. First, real average hourly wages for nonsupervisory workers rose 0.1% in July to a new […]

Ford delays EV plans to make more Super Duty trucks as demand booms

AB: That the US is still playing around with costly old technology and pollutes the environment is unbelievable. In the end, it will come back and haunt the later generations as energy and resources become more expensive. Ford Motor Co. is ramping up production of its F-Series Super Duty pickups with a $3 billion investment to keep […]

The totally predictable economics of climate change

Back when we were grad students at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1977-82, my wife and I made several trips to the Outer Banks. One reason was to visit her uncle and his family, who lived in Buxton, just north of Hatteras lighthouse. What struck me then was how many people lived in homes on the coast […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators August 12-16 2024

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. With the bond market anticipating Fed rate cuts ahead, it has already lowered mortgage rates somewhat on its own. That has led to a jump in new applications, and to an even bigger spike in refinancing. As usual, clicking over and reading […]

Mortgage Delinquencies Increase in Q2 2024

Also depicted by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk – MBA: “Mortgage Delinquencies Increase in Q2 2024” WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 15, 2024) – The mortgage delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.97 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2024, according […]