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

Real wages and consumer spending have been crucial positives; here is the most updated look

 – New Deal democrat We are still suffering the aftereffects of the government shutdown, with no data today, but a helping of mainly stale government data tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow we get up to date private data from the ISM for services, and from ADP for private employment, along with manufacturers’ orders for October. On Friday […]

December ISM manufacturing report: continued contraction, continued stagflation, poor employment

 – by New Deal democrat We are still suffering the data aftereffects of the government shutdown. Normally we begin each month with reports on both construction spending as well as manufacturing. But the construction report even now has only been updated through August, and won’t be updated for September and October until January 21. And […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators for December 29 2025 – January 2 2026

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. As 2025 ended, all of the important trends seemed to intensify. The US$ is down 10% YoY by one measure, commodities are higher by the same or more, oil prices continued to fade, and the recent waning in the YoY growth of withholding […]

Perhaps, It is Not a Good Idea to Do Only One Clinical Study?

Typically, it does take more than one clinical study to insure . . . A lower number of Clinical Studies: WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration plans to begin requiring one clinical study, instead of the standard two, for medical products before consideration for approval, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced late in 2025.  While historically the […]

Economic year end summary for 2025: housing, jobs, & real income stagnant, while spending powers forward

 – by New Deal democrat There is no new noteworthy data today; and the ISM manufacturing index, normally released on the first workday of each month, won’t be released until Monday, so today is an ideal time to check in on the state of the economy in general, and of housing in particular, at the […]

Positive trend in jobless claims continues through year end

[Note: Yesterday was a travel day, and I didn’t get around to posting the regional Fed services survey averages for December. I’ll try to get to that later today.] The last weekly jobless report continues the trend of an improved picture – as in, very few people are getting laid off – that has typified […]

Raising Taxes on The Rich in Income for Healthcare

This short piece suggests how healthcare could be paid for in the US. A necessary first step to restore faith in American democracy and the public sector. or how to close the nation’s current fiscal gap. Right now the current Republican Administration led by President Tru_p solution is to cut healthcare via Medcaid to much […]

Regional Fed manufacturing indexes suggest 2025 trends are slowly abating

 – by New Deal democrat Although the federal government shutdown has been over for a month and a half, most of the data that has been released has lagged badly, especially including data on sales, spending, and business orders. That means that the most current measures of these are the ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing reports, due […]

AI Rapidly Replacing Labor – Workers

Artificial intelligence is already taking jobs from human workers, but according to renowned computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, the real disruption may only be getting started. In a weekend interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Hinton predicted that AI systems will make significant leaps in 2026, gaining capabilities that could allow them to replace an even […]