There is quite a lot occurring with our fearless leader in charge who believes he can make decisions regardless of the results of his decision with regard to the Constitution. Congress can impose Tariffs. The president can not. “The Context You Need to Understand the Supreme Court’s Tariffs Decision,” Civil Discourse, Joyce Vance Thanks for […]

Like most boomers, I’m retired. My retirement is funded by (a) a 403b defined contribution plan, (b) Social Security and (c) personal savings. I waited until age 70 for SS benefits, to max those out. Not everyone is so fortunate. “How’s this for a somber retirement forecast: The typical American worker has less than $1,000 […]

Briefly; Data pulled from HealthAffairs. I was curious as to how much healthcare costs have grown in the United States. As the detail from the article shows we have been experiencing costs increasing at 7+ percent the last two years. This is up from 4 and 5% in preceding years. I have not checked it, […]

 – by New Deal democrat Personal income and spending are among the most important monthly indicators of all, because they give us a detailed look at consumption by the broad range of American households. And since consumption leads employment, they also give us an idea of what is likely to happen with regard to jobs in […]

– by New Deal democrat There is more and more accumulating evidence that manufacturing, at least in the aggregate, is something close to Booming. That message was apparent in yesterday’s durable goods orders report for December. While the headline number (blue in the graph below) declined -1.4%, the three month average for this very volatile […]

Good explanation on who pays the tariffs imposed upon imports by Trump. Who Bears the Cost of Tariffs? Liberty Street Economics Mary Amiti, Chris Flanagan, Sebastian Heise, and David E. Weinstein The next chart shows how global supply chains shifted in response to the higher tariffs. We plot import shares by country (or region) for […]

– by New Deal democrat Later this morning I’ll discuss yesterday’s positive durable goods orders release, and in that context, I’ll also have more to say about the likely reason why industrial production also improved so much. Tomorrow we’ll get personal income and spending, and new home sales, both from December, as well as the […]

Our fearless leader (who never had much to fear in his lifetime) is recasting the economics of this nation more to his liking. There may(?) have been a time year (decades?) ago when doing so would not be much of an issue. This due to the United States economic size and power globally after WWII. […]

 – by New Deal democrat When I updated this information in September, I wrote that “a puzzling relationship this year has been that the housing data has been classically recessionary for a number of months, and yet the economy has not rolled over.” I concluded that update by noting that while the report was “very much […]

Beating a constant drum here of the Quality and Expense for United Staes healthcare. This short piece by CEPR’s John Schmitt offers excellent and simple graphs presenting the detail of healthcare in the United States versus other countries. Simplistic graphs and numbers for the United States and measured along with other countries. The issue is […]