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

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Robert Haveman, RIP

Robert Haveman, RIP, Econospeak, Barkley Rosser  Robert (Bob) Haveman died on June 18, aged 85.  He had been at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1970, when I first met him, where he served as Chair of the econ dept., director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, and also Director of the LaFollette Institute for […]

Back in My Old Home State of Michigan

People in Democrat majority Michigan are Angry . . . Michigan Legislative Black Caucus offers scathing response (audacy.com) LANSING (WWJ) — The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, spearheaded by Sen. Marshall Bullock, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case which effectively ended the constitutional right to abortion in the United […]

Liars, Originalists, Justices, and Dobbs, Oh My!

I do not know about you. It is hard not to get or be angry due to January 6 of last year, the constant barrage of garbage coming from Republican Congressional Representatives, and Senators of the same political ilk. We have found few to be redeemable. Then there is a Conservative, nope, call them Republican […]

New home sales rebound, but downtrend in sales intact; prices continue to climb

New home sales rebound, but downtrend in sales intact; prices continue to climb In response to April’s dismal report, I wrote that “new home sales are heavily revised after the first report. It is not unusual at all for big monthly moves like this to suddenly look much less severe when the number gets revised […]

Chaos Theory and The End of Roe V Wade

“Chaos Theory and The End of Roe V Wade,” Econospeak, Barkley Rosser Probably the most famous characteristic of chaotic dynamics is the phenomenon known formally as sensitive dependence on initial conditions, which is more popularly known as the “butterfly effect.” In such dynamics a small change in a starting value or a parameter value can […]

Resurrecting the metric: initial claims lead the unemployment rate

Resurrecting the metric: initial claims lead the unemployment rate; no recession signal so far  Initial jobless claims declined -2,000 to 229,000 last week, vs. the 50+ year low of 166,000 set in March. The 4 week average rose from 4,500 to 223,500, compared with the all-time low of 170,500 eleven weeks ago.  Continuing claims rose […]

Healthcare, Oil, and SCOTUS Dominates the News

It has been a while since I have listed news articles. Healthcare, Oil, and SCOTUS topics are dominating news today. Colorado is kicking of a Public Option. If successful, it will greatly benefit citizens there. Oil and gasoline are big issues. When taking into consideration inflation, the price today of a gallon of gasoline is […]