Jô Soares, a well known Comedian turned political commentator (think Al Franken but not in the Senate) in Brazil, used to do a recurring skit about a former general who woke up from a coma. The rib was, the general had gone into the coma while the country was still ruled by a military junta. […]

The August jobs report smacked of late cycle deceleration As promised, here is my abbreviated and late take on this morning’s employment report. While the additions to temporary positions (a leading indicator for jobs overall), and construction, and manufacturing jobs were welcome, this report sure looked like late cycle deceleration. The YoY% growth in jobs […]

Here’s an article entitled I Set a Defendant Free And Got Blamed When He Raped Someone. This is what the article is about: A judge explains how he decides whether to release a defendant before trial without bail — and how it can go bad. I found reading any further into the article was a […]

Trump Labor Policy  by Noam Scheiber via NYT: In June, Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta announced the withdrawal of two prominent Obama administration guidances — documents that do not change the law but indicate how a department interprets it and can influence employers. The first had clarified when a worker could be classified as an […]

Via the New York Times, William E. Forbath and Brishen Rogers write an op ed for Labor Day: A New Type of Labor Law for a New Type of Worker Labor Day was born in the late 19th century, during a time of raw fear about the path of economic development. Opportunities for decent, middle-class […]

I have vigorously criticized the European Community DG EcFin approach to estimating the non accelerating wage inflation rate of unemployment (NAWRU). This is a step in their estimation of output gaps, which, in turn, are used to set allowed deficits for member countries under the Stability and Growth Pact. The calculations are critically important. Marco […]

Much of the coverage of this incident at a hospital in Utah write of ‘recent changes’ in the law concerning drawing blood, but that, as far as I can tell, was a year ago. Is that a recent change? Certainly not changed by an obscure agency or executive order. Perhaps this kind of optic will […]

by David Zetland (originally published at Aguanomics) Protecting groundwater and reducing pollution in India KA writes: In developing countries which there is a constant struggle between farmers and utilities over water allocation, most of implemented policies are based on punishment. For example, quotas are assigned to each farmer and if he goes over his quota […]

Let Trump Continue To Fail To Appoint People There has been much moaning and wailing and gnashing of teeth by many commentators and politicians over the failure of President Donald Trump to appoint people to fill numerous now vacant positions within the executive branch of government, with the State Department often being put forward as […]