“Record low labor share: corporate profits are at their most extreme levels ever compared with nonsupervisory payrolls,”  – by New Deal democrat An I’ve read a few takes in the past week or so about the declining “labor share” of GDP. To cut to the chase, here’s a link to that exact graph:  In case you are […]

 – by New Deal democrat There’s no new data of note today or tomorrow, so in the meantime (aside from observing Martin Luther King’s birthday) let me take a look at a very important, if small piece of economic data: the “real” price of gas. Gas price shocks have been important precipitants of a number of […]

– by New Deal democrat Industrial production is much less central to the US economic picture than it was before the “China shock,” but it remains an important if diminished economic indicator, particularly since the month it has peaked in the past has typically been the month the NBER has chosen as the economic cycle peak. […]

The privileged elitists on Trump’s cabinet can’t help themselves. They broadcast how, like Trump himself, they’re out of touch. “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made waves this week with claims that the Trump administration’s revamped food pyramid leaves plenty of room for Americans to maintain a healthy diet for as little as $3 a meal. “In […]

​For most, economics is about earning enough to be able to buy the requisite goods and services — to make ends meet.  Having a little left over for that rainy day, perhaps retirement, would be very nice. In a good economy, most can.  For the past forty-plus years, an ever larger percentage of Americans have […]

 – by New Deal democrat Last Friday I summarized the jobs report as “show[ing] a contracting jobs market in all important metrics except the headlines (which, for the record, were positive).  …[A]lmost] all of the important leading metrics … were negative, [including the] goods-producing sectors – manufacturing, construction (including residential construction), and temporary jobs – declined, as […]

 – by New Deal democrat First, usually the week following the employment report is very quiet, and I put up “scenes from the report” with some important graphs. With all the releases catching up on old data this week, I haven’t done that; but because jobless claims are the only significant data this morning, I intend […]

 – by New Deal democrat Although the government shutdown is long over, the most recent government housing updates have been for October, I.e., two months stale. Thus the NAR’s existing home sales report has temporarily become among our best look at housing sales, prices, and inventorythe housing market.  As per my context all this year, after […]

 – by New Deal democrat Real retail sales, one of my favorite broad-economy indicators, was updated through November this morning, making only one month stale. This, along with real personal spending, is one of the two most important indicators which have been missing, as we know the jobs and real income have been stagnant, but […]

Look, here’s the thing about money: it isn’t real. It’s all about belief and trust. I’ve been invested in equities and money markets for over 40 years. I’ve ridden the ups and downs. Money only means what people say it means, neither more nor less. Alfred North Whitehead coined the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness.” He […]