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

The un(der)employment rate leads wage growth: 2023 update

The un(der)employment rate leads wage growth: 2023 update  – by New Deal democrat I had already planned on taking an updated look at wage growth today, but there was a little flutter on twitter about job openings and last week’s Q1 wage and benefits data, so that sealed the deal. To wit: as I used […]

What is Section 4 of the 14th, “The validity of the public debt of the United States?”

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) | National Archives, Section 4. “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State […]

March JOLTS report shows labor market about halfway to pre-pandemic normalization

March JOLTS report shows labor market about halfway to pre-pandemic normalization  – by New Deal democrat The title of this piece is an important to clue the relative nature of this morning’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover report for March. For the last several years, the jobs market has been a game of “reverse musical […]

Selection of In-Box Articles I Found Interesting

Another collection of articles on various topics from my In-Box. Puling quite a bit from Healthcare. Some interesting articles in this batch. I hope you take a few moments and read some of them. Most are not terribly long winded. I wander in the comments section to see what is being said on various topics. […]

Manufacturing and construction start out the month’s data to the negative side

Manufacturing and construction start out the month’s data to the negative side  – by New Deal democrat As usual, we start the month with reports on last month’s manufacturing, and construction from two months ago. The ISM manufacturing index has a 75 year record of being a very reliable leading indicator. According to the ISM, […]

First Republic Bank Seized by Regulators and Sold . . .

Commenter Fred Dobbs reports (NYT) on the seizure of First Republic Bank by banking regulators in the comments section of Angry Bear. I am beginning to wonder how many more seizures will occur. How many failures are resulting from the loosening of Dodd-Frank? It appears the Fed has a greater impact on banks than Labor. […]

Short Term Rentals and Airbnbs Impact on Long Term Renters and Homeowners

I got to this article about the Home Value Index Report after reading an Insider’s “The Fight Over Airbnbs Is Now Descending on Small American Cities,” businessinsider.com, Dan Latu. The article is about Airbnb rentals in Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman residents are trying to figure out what to do as it is driving up the prices […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators April 24 – 28

 Weekly Indicators for April 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Several important short leading indicators rallied this week. In particular, the stock market seems to think the worst is over (for the moment!). At the same time, several important coincident indicators of taxation […]

A mixed picture on real personal income, savings, and spending in March, and real total sales in February

A mixed picture on real personal income, savings, and spending in March, and real total sales in February  – by New Deal democrat As I’ve indicated a number of times recently, right now I consider the report on personal income and spending co-equal to the employment report as the most important monthly data. For March, […]

Healthcare Utilization, Costs, and Pricing Drivers – 2017 and 2021

Health Care Cost and Utilization Report, healthcostinstitute.org, April 2023 Year-over-year and 5-year cumulative trends in health care spending for individuals with employer-sponsored insurance. A detailed report by the Health Care Cost Institute covering the period 2017 – 2021 which includes the Covid pandemic. Decreases i total costs were seen during the pandemic. Still in the […]