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

Housing Expenditures Impact on Social Security Beneficiaries, 2005 – 2018

I was looking for a report through 2022 on housing. This was the best I could do. Maybe later? The report is about households with or without SS beneficiaries who are renting, homeowners with mortgages, and homeowners without mortgages. The study is looking at the cost impact in each category for those households with SS […]

The 101st Chairborn: History is a Prankster

I don’t know if kids these days still use the slang, but back in the glory days of blogging, a way to mock chicken hawks was to call them keyboard warriors or the 101st chairborn. These were people convinced they were fighting terror by advocating aggressive foreign policy in the safety of their own house […]

Scenes from the jobs report 2: unemployment rate and consumption: weak, but not recessionary

Scenes from the jobs report 2: the unemployment rate and consumption: weak, but not recessionary  – by New Deal democrat Yesterday I looked at some employment metrics from Friday’s jobs report. Today let’s look at un- (and under-) employment. Every Thursday I repeat the mantra that jobless claims lead the unemployment rate. Here are both […]

Personal Saving Makes More than 40% of Property Income . . . Invisible. Think Total Return

Personal income, so Personal saving, ignore a huge part of Total Return — the income-from-assets measure used by every modern portfolio investor. Guess what’s missing? Personal Saving Makes More than 40% of Property Income . . . Invisible. Think Total Return, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth Matthew Klein and Joey Politano have been singularly responsible in their discussions of […]

It’s Cheaper to Manufacture Plastic Products in Ohio than in China

Before you go on a bender claiming it is not true. It is true. Your costs of inventory and transportation are high. Three weeks on the ocean plus one week on the dock on each side of the ocean. Transportation costs and time to the buyer. Container costs this last go around were as high […]

Scenes from the leading sectors of the December jobs report: sectors of weakness and strength

Scenes from the leading sectors of the December jobs report: sectors of weakness and strength  – by New Deal democrat For nearly two decades, my focus on economic reporting online has been finding and examining leading indicators; those datapoints that tell us where the economy in general, and in particular jobs and income for ordinary […]

It ain’t over, folks

Here we are in a presidential election year, and one of the two major party candidates certain to get the nomination is still claiming the last one was stolen from him. Now, he refers to the criminals who were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison over their Jan 6 crimes as “hostages.” When did the […]

The attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the counting of the electoral ballots 

Probably getting tired of reading this. I can not think of any good reason to quell commentary on the attempt by a president, senators, and representatives to overthrow the US government. That they still walk free is repugnant. January 6, 2024, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Today, three years to the day […]

In-Box Topics Which May Be of Interest

Another array of emails collecting in my In-Box offering up articles besides junk. Some interesting reads and others not so. Picked what I thought might be the best. Some are hawking subscriptions too. I like to subscribe to newsletters and magazines. The problem being never getting a chance to finish reading them all. Climate and […]

Being grateful for one big thing Baby boomers did Part II

Part Two of Being grateful for one big thing Baby Boomers did. Part I can be found here as written by Andy Kiersz. Gen Z, Millennials Should Stop Complaining About Baby Boomers, Economy, business insider, Andy Kiersz Excellent Charting done by the author Andy Kiersz. Detail taken from the Census Bureau, BLS, Penn World Tables, Federal […]