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

New home sales for February increase; likely bottomed last July

New home sales for February increase; likely bottomed last July  – by New Deal democrat Most of what you probably read elsewhere focuses on new home prices, which after finally declining -0.7% YoY in January, rebounded to +2.5% YoY. As is usual, prices  follow sales YoY with a considerable lag (note since prices are not seasonally […]

The Exxon Tiger Rampant

The Exxon Tiger Rampant, Bad Crow Review, Weldon Berger Links are at the end, doing linky stuff. ______________________________________________________ “confidence is high in the oil and gas world” ________________________________________________________ And why not? Record profits, massive new drilling projects in delicate environs, a presidential pronouncement validating decades more of fossil fuel burning and did we mention fabulous profits? […]

February existing home sales confirm prices have declined

February existing home sales confirm prices have declined, but bottom in sales and construction may be in  – by New Deal democrat There were only two noteworthy takeaways from the February existing home sales report: (1) like mortgage applications, permits, and starts, existing home sales responded to lower mortgage rates (a decline from just over […]

Average and aggregate nonsupervisory wages for February

Average and aggregate nonsupervisory wages for February 2023  – by New Deal democrat There’s no significant economic news today, so let’s update a couple of income indicators important to average American working households. Namely, because we now have the inflation report for February as well as payrolls, we can update average and aggregate nonsupervisory wages. […]

Escape from Muddle Land

Escape from Muddle Land, Econospeak, Peter Dorman Let’s get the up-or-down part of this review over with quickly: Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It by Erica Thompson is a poorly written, mostly vacuous rumination on mathematical modeling, and you would do well to ignore it. […]

Industrial production ‘meh’ in February, but down sharply since last summer

Industrial production ‘meh’ in February, but down sharply since last summer; real manufacturing and trade sales forecast to decline in Febuary  – by New Deal democrat Industrial production was unchanged for the month of February, while manufacturing production rose +0.1%. But the bad news is that both were revised lower for the past 5 months, as […]

A New Year in 2022 and New Pharmaceutical pricing, a short Explanation

An early attempt as to explaining the drug market. It is a start and I have to program myself to understand what is said. Brief and down to earth with pictures too! Much of this is a C&P with some editing. Much credit to the authors for giving us this opportunity to understand. Welcoming a […]

Housing construction: the good news and the bad news

Housing construction: good news and bad news  – by New Deal democrat This morning’s report on housing construction contained both good news and bad news. First, the good news. Both permits (gold in the graph below) and starts (blue) increased, the former by 185,000 on an annualized rate, the latter by 129,000: It is very possible […]