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

2019: the year that the late economic expansion finally bore fruit for nearly all of society

2019: the year that the late economic expansion finally bore fruit for nearly all of society Yesterday  (Sept. 16) the Census Bureau released its 2019 information concerning median household income and poverty rates. Unfortunately, this data is always released in September of the following year, so is already somewhat stale. Just for example, since the […]

August housing permits and starts bode well for 2021 economy

by New Deal democrat August housing permits and starts bode well for 2021 economy  As I mentioned yesterday, August housing starts and permits were reported. Since they are important long leading indicators, I promised an update. And here it is, up at Seeking Alpha. As usual, clicking over and reading should be educational for you, and […]

COVID-19, Moderna Therapeutics mRNA Vaccine, and Crichton

I understood how some combinations of drugs work in attacking Covid-19 with one drug acting as an ionophore allowing another drug to enter a cell and attach to Covid RNA stopping its replication. I found this nice chart on National Geographic offering up an educational semi -medical and microbiologist depiction of how Moderna’s new vaccine […]

Real retail sales gains join industrial production in sharp deceleration

Real retail sales gains join industrial production in sharp deceleration Two days ago we saw that gains in industrial production had decelerated sharply in August. This morning we saw the same thing with real retail sales, one of my favorite indicators. Nominal retail sales were up +0.6% in August. Meanwhile, July’s reading was revised downward […]

Jones v USPS

In Jones v USPS, the Postal Service provided weekly service performance data since the beginning of the year. This is the most complete picture of on-time performance that we’ve seen since the mail delays became an issue earlier this summer. The data set is discussed in this post. There was also a hearing today in the Jones case. We hope to […]

Industrial production improves in August, but with sharp deceleration

Industrial production improves in August, but with sharp deceleration If the jobs report is the Queen of Coincident Indicators, industrial production is the King. It, more than any other metric, is found at the turning points where recessions both begin and end. This morning’s report of industrial production for August shows that the recovery from […]

The Seven-Percent Solution: The Not-So-Secret Plan to Downsize the Postal Service

Steve Hutkins authors Save the Post Office on issues affecting the Post Office. First, a disclaimer. The following analysis is largely speculative. It’s not based on insider information. The evidence comes from news articles, government reports, legal filings, and a few leaked internal USPS documents that were published on postal news sites. The analysis could […]