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

May real retail sales: the front-running of tariffs is over

 – by New Deal democrat We can safely say that the front-running of tariffs is over. As usual, real retail sales is one of my favorite indicators, because it tells us so much about consumers, and since consumption leads employment, it gives us information about the trend in that as well. And this morning’s report for […]

Tariffs Result in a Delayed Fed Rate Decrease

Trump is tossing a hissy because “The FED” has decided to delay any decreases of the FED Rate. Which in my limited opinion of what is going on with a loose cannon government directed by a rogue president is a wise decision. Trump and politicians are not the ones who will bear the brunt of […]

Updating the nonfinancial long leading indicators, plus several important short leading ones

 – by New Deal democrat Since a couple of years ago, I temporarily suspended my updating of the long leading indicators. That is because their negative slant in 2022 was completely overcome by the hurricane force tailwind of the unspooling supply chain kinks. By that time the Fed had already raised rates more steeply than at […]

Medicaid and ACA Cuts Will Increase Costs for Older Adults and Medicare

As taken from Health Affairs. This report magnifies the impact of Trump and the Republican piece of garbage healthcare bill. A bill which targets those who have low income, are older, and make more than the 400-percent-of-the-federal-poverty-level subsidy cliff. The subsidy increase about 500% FPL was to help more people, families, and older people qualify […]

Student Loan Debt

I did this a couple of years ago. What you are looking at is the current Student Loan Debt carried by former students. Also included is the ages of each group of students. I am using 2025 Quarter 1 numbers owed for the 50- to 61-year-old former students and also the 62 and older students. […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators June 9-13

Weekly Indicators for June 9 – 13 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. While there were no significant changes in the indicators, there is evidence of  a downturn in consumer spending compared with the tariff front-running of several months ago, as well as a continued decline […]

Fallout for People Insured During Covid with the Passage of Trump’s Bill and Government Subsidies Ending

Lower-income person paying 2% of their income on their premium for healthcare insurance pre-covid, now pay nothing. Higher income people currently pay no more than 8.5% of their income on their premium. Pre-covid they were originally ineligible for financial assistance. All of this will change with the passage of Trump’s bill. Enhanced subsidies for Affordable […]

Subsidizing the Upper Income Citizens by Stiffing Lower Income Citizens

“Distributional Effects of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act” CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) analysis of the budgetary and distributional effects of H.R. 1 or the “One Beautiful Piece of ? as passed on May 22, 2025. CBO estimates, on average, household resources would increase over the […]

House Bill and Healthcare

One of the programs in play is reductions in Medicaid and Market Place provisions to pay for the tax breaks to a few. Cutting these programs will result in higher deficits also. Reductions in Medicaid and Marketplace provisions will reduce the roughly $1 trillion in ten-year federal savings these provisions generate thereby magnifying the beautiful […]

New 21 month high in the four-week average of initial claims; and new 3.5 year high in continuing claims. But no recession signal

 – by New Deal democrat This week’s update in jobless claims was decidedly mixed. Initial claims were unchanged at 248,000. Nevertheless this level was only equaled once and exceeded once in the past year. The four week moving average increased 5,000 to 240,500, the highest number since September 2023. With the typical one week delay, continuing […]