Improvement slows in initial claims; expect recent job growth to slow as well A preliminary note: this morning’s report on housing permits and starts showed improvement across the board in June, although the absolute levels are no better than the low points of 2017 and late 2018-early 2019: I’ll have more at Seeking Alpha […]
Robert Kuttner on public approval of Trump’s handing of the economy: As general support for Trump keeps sinking, there is one anomaly. According to this July 15 Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, which finds Biden leading Trump by 11 points, fully 54 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. Really? That would be the corona […]
For once Trump is right to claim that he has set a new record as the federal deficit is now over 10% of GDP. It is now 10.7% of GDP as compared to the prior record of 10.2% that Obama inherited from Bush. The deficit is looking more and more like what happened in Japan. […]
And we as Democrats did not resist hard enough and gave in to the Republican message. It wasn’t the lack of turnout by black Americans causing Trump to be elected. It was not the failure to vote as the numbers of voters exceeded that of the 2012 election. It was the minority of voters who […]
Kind of a big deal because Oklahomans rejected Trump’s Medicaid and Republican block grant-program which would be more vulnerable to cuts of Federal funding. It is unfortunate Oklahoma did not get on board with the ACA Medicaid expansion as 100% of the costs of the Medicaid expansion from 2014 – 2016 and 90% there after. […]
by New Deal democrat Housing rebounded sharply in May One aspect of the economy that is important in terms of how well things will go once the pandemic ultimately recedes (which won’t occur until after next January 20) remains housing. And low-interest rates brought housing back from the depths in May. My look at the […]
George Floyd and the Costs of Racial Capitalism, LAWCHA, Ken Estey, June 10, 2020 Some History A little bit about LAWCHA. The “Labor and Working Class History Association” is an organization of scholars, teachers, students, labor educators, and activists who seek to promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history through research, writing, and […]
After the recent market rebound the S&P 500 valuation has risen from below my estimated fair value to just over the top of the fair value band. It is important to remember that much of the rebound in the S&P PE is due to weaker earnings. In the second quarter earnings are falling at double […]
Word is circulating that Stephen Miller is writing Donald Trump’s speech on race relations. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Trump’s “solution” to the current malaise in the U.S. will involve extending a ban on immigration and expanding enforcement and expulsion of undocumented individuals. This seems like a safe bet […]
There are two insurance-related police reform ideas being discussed. One approach focuses on municipal liability insurance. Many municipalities do not purchase liability insurance to cover lawsuits against officers, instead choosing to self-insure. This is potentially a problem because insurers actually play an important role in loss control. They provide information and services related to procedures, […]