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

New Housing Starts Higher in June, Building Permits 5.3% Lower

RJS, MarketWatch 666, New Housing Starts Reported Higher in June, Building Permits 5.3% Lower The June report on New Residential Construction (pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that new housing units were being started at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,643,000 in June, which was 6.3 percent (±11.5 percent)* above the revised May estimated annual rate […]

Comments on existing home sale prices

Comments on existing home sale prices Existing home sales were reported yesterday. Since, although they are about 90% of the market, they have much less effect on the economy than new home sales, I normally don’t pay that much attention.But I did want to emerge from my vacation hideaway to make a few comments. 1. […]

Private Equity invests in “Primary Care” Medicine

I am adding a brief comment here (it fits and is on topic) rather than going back to the earlier post which I believe to be titled correctly; “Little Good can Come from Private Equity in the Healthcare Industry.” As my source of information I had identified two different articles taken from Modern Healthcare and […]

Weekly Indicators for July 19 – 23 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for July 19 – 23 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. No visible impact on the economy yet due to the Delta wave. In March 2020, the first indicator to tip over was restaurant reservations. I would expect that to be the first item […]

What We Still Do Not Know about Emmett Till

In 1955, just past daybreak, a Chevrolet truck pulled up to an unmarked building. A 14-year-old child was in the back. The article is part of “Inheritance,” a project about American history and Black life.. It is a good offering by The Atlantic, “His Name Was Emmett Till,” Wright Thompson Introduction: “The killing of Emmett till […]

New jobless claims rise sharply; is the Delta wave beginning to take its economic toll?

New jobless claims rise sharply; is the Delta wave beginning to take its economic toll? New jobless claims are the most important weekly economic datapoint with regard to the effects of vaccination progress. At this point, it is also a test of how much the “delta wave” of new cases is setting economic progress back. […]

Why Did Trump Initially Support The Saudi-UAE Effort To Overthrow Qatar’s Government?

Why Did Trump Initially Support The Saudi-UAE Effort To Overthrow Qatar’s Government?  One of the more curious things in 2017 in the first year of the Trump presidency was how when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) placed a boycott on Qatar and more directly attempted to overthrow the government of Qatar, President […]