– by New Deal democrat Because tomorrow is the Federal Juneteenth Holiday, initial and continuing claims were released today. They continue to show a slowly weakening, but not (yet) recessionary, economy. Initial claims declined -5,000 to 245,000 for the week, while the four week moving average rose another 4,750 to 245,500. This four week average is […]
In its latest attack on Iran, Israel has resorted to bombing and assassination to convince Iran to capitulate on its nuclear program*. What’s the track record of success for bombing and assassination campaigns? Bombing “Unless an enemy army takes Tehran, as the US military took Baghdad in 2003, this four-branch government cannot be gotten rid […]
Robert Reich offering up how bad trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is and the havoc it will cause for low-income Americans. One example? The reversal of Biden’s subsidy increase from 600% to 400% FPL by Trump. It will price many families out of the healthcare market. There is more detail here “House Bill and Healthcare,” Angry […]
– by New Deal democrat Today’s second report was for industrial production, including its important manufacturing component. The data for May was mixed, as total production (blue) declined -0.2%, while manufacturing production (red) increased 0.1% In March I wrote that “I suspect the big increases in February and March in manufacturing, like this morning’s retail […]
No pay. no healthcare insurance, no rack to sleep in and probably no mess hall meals somewhere. I am going to guess their being federalized grants them access to regular Army healthcare. Still does not take care of family. Civilian authorities always like the help of Federal Detachments until it comes time to provide essentials. […]
– 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 […]
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 […]
– 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 […]
Though it feels weird to say it, RFK Jr and I agree on something: curtailing direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. “The Trump administration is discussing policies that would make it harder and more expensive for pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to patients, in a move that could disrupt more than $10 billion in annual ad spending. […]
I’m a frequent user of what passes for AI on Google. I used to just Google key words, but now I’ll Google questions. Google AI answers those questions. Usually, they’re simple questions like “When did ___ happen?” or “How old is ___?” For anything esoteric that I care about, I can follow up with my […]