– by New Deal democrat I’ve been ambivalent about whether the mania for AI is a Boom or a Bubble. That’s because whether its use is transformative or, like Steve Jobs’ claims that the Segway would revolutionize transportation, not so much. But what has become increasingly clear is that virtually the entire economy has been […]
Its Saturday and I am on the run. So, I am being brief. Another Dean Baker piece. This time on Immigrants. The one thing I keep saying over and over again is about our replacement rate. This is not like after WWII when men came home from WWII. got married, and population increased dramatically. The […]
Factory construction has trended downward due to economic uncertainty, throughput improvements, material costs increasing, and increasing interest rates. Companies are not willing to risk investment at this time without a sound future forecast to utilize additional factory production. The surge in 2024 was driven by policies such as the CHIPS Act. Demand cooled as companies […]
– by New Deal democrat I just wanted to drop a brief note about this morning’s PPI report. In May headline producer prices rose 1.1% for the month (the second such increase in a row), and on a YoY basis increased 6.5%. Final demand goods prices are up 9.1% YoY, and final demand services up 4.9%: […]
– by New Deal democrat Last week I wrote that “we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of that change of regime, so it will be interesting to see if the negative YoY comparisons continue, or if they fade away. This week’s numbers are noteworthy in that regard, because they suggest that – maybe – […]
Commentary by Andrew Sprung at his site: xpostfactoid. Besides the other factors, I will point out, Hospital Prices Have Risen Much Faster for Private Insurance Than Medicare Since 2019 per a KFF report in May of this year. The increases “represent approximately one third of total health care spending and accounted for 40% of spending growth from 2022 to […]
– by New Deal democrat Just as forecast by the Cleveland Fed, the CPI in May increased 0.5% – less than the increases in March and April, but still too high. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased only 0.2%. The YoY% gains both also increased, to 4.2% and 2.8% respectively. to increase to […]
– by New Deal democrat First of all, my usual caveat: although they constitute about 90% of all housing sales, I don’t pay too much attention to existing sales because they are not nearly so important as new home sales, since the latter involve much more economic activity in the building process, plus more landscaping […]
I did not get a chance to post this commentary about the last day for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell who stepped down as the Chair. Just to be clear, he was succeeded by Kevin Warsh. Powell did break precedent by remaining on the Fed’s governing board as a governor. He will serve out the […]
As you probably know by now, I subscribe to Paul Krugman’s column which I read whenever I see something of interest. to me and maybe you too. Every once and a while I may C& P one column that is days old and post it at Angry Bear and of course attribute Professor Krugman. As […]