It’s now two years after the end of the Great Recession, and the unemployment rate has ticked downward just 9 pps (percentage points) since its 10.1% peak. Pundits call this an expansion since GDP has fully retraced its recession losses; but the unemployment rate tells a very different story. (click to enlarge) The chart illustrates […]
Industrial production was reported to have increased 0.2% in June as compared to – 0.1% declines in April and May. The entire gain was in mining and utilities as manufacturing output was unchanged. The chart shows industrial production this cycle compared to other cycles. The old forecasting rule of thumb was that it took about […]
Not Scarcity, But Surplus is the Problem (Just as Dismal, though) by Noni Mausa, lifted from comments at Economist’s View They were discussing scarcity last week at Economist’s View. But to my mind scarcity isn’t our core problem. I wrote (and then edited a bit for this post): ======= Yes, scarcity of resources is fundamental […]
CBS Marketwatch Devalues their Brand. Kash views the carnage: Despite all the rhetoric and posturing we see in the media and in Washington D.C., it is safe to say categorically that the U.S. Treasury will not default on its debt after August 2nd, even if the debt ceiling is not raised. Not only will the […]
If Obama’s first term is a different thing than GW’s third term, why is Obama’s Secretary of Defense telling US troops that that they’re in Iraq because the US was attacked on September 11?
Note:This was going to be short pieces about things I missed during a week of illness. It turned into a Very Long Piece riffing on two posts from Capital Gains and Games. And that’s without even mentioning the bravura work Stan Collender is doing there: see, for instance, this note that a deficit reduction bill […]
Health Care Thoughts: Draft Exchange Rules Published The Obama administration has published draft rules for the formation and operation of Affordable Insurance Exchanges, a key element in the PPACA (Obamacare) plan to increase insurance coverage. There is a 75 day comment and then more time to digest the comments before final rules are issued. Implementation […]
by Beverly Mann Update: Business journalist Merrill Goozner has a terrific in-depth deconstruction of the so-called Texas Miracle at TheFiscalTimes, at Perry’s Texas Miracle less than meets the eye, published last Friday. Texas, the jobs engine? Or Texas, the jobs-laundering engine? An op-ed piece mentioned by a reader two weekends ago in the LA Times, […]
by: Daniel Becker Ok some more information to bolster my position that my flower shop being down this year another 4.5% compared to last year (at least the decline is leveling off) is not the results of government debt or too much taxation or banks not lending or unions… nope, my shop is off because […]