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

Weekly Indicators for November 4 – 8 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for November 4 – 8 at Seeking Alpha  My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The biggest story of the week was the move higher in long term interest rates. This means that the “yield curve inversion” you’ve read so much about in the past year is over. […]

GDP, Manufacturing employment

David Zetland….”For years, I have complained that “nobody wakes up in the morning, looks at GDP statistics, and changes their plans for the day.” Listen to this podcast on mis-measuring productivity and manufacturing statistics, which may have given populists excuses to “fix” problems that never existed. (My impression is that many more people would be happier if they looked […]

Mankiw’s Ideal Democrat (Bloomberg Alert)

Mankiw’s Ideal Democrat (Bloomberg Alert) Greg Mankiw has always been a Never Trumper: I just came back from city hall, where I switched my voter registration from Republican to unenrolled (aka independent). Two reasons: First, the Republican Party has largely become the Party of Trump. Too many Republicans in Congress are willing, in the interest of […]

Scenes from the October employment report: full employment?

Scenes from the October employment report: full employment? Last Friday the household jobs report – the one that tells us about unemployment, underemployment, and labor force participation – has been particularly strong in the past three months. This has driven some impressive gains in labor force participation and the unemployment rate. To begin with, gains […]

S&P 500 BY PRESIDENTIAL TERMS

Wall Street analysts have long engaged in speculative predictions about the impact of political shifts on the economy, particularly as elections approach. Recently, I came across discussions highlighting trends on koreacasiosites.com 카지노보증사이트, a platform known for providing information on secure online casino sites, which sparked an interesting parallel. Much like the claims of imminent economic […]

The Changing Nature of FDI

by Joseph Joyce The Changing Nature of FDI The OECD has published its data on flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first half of 2019. They reveal how multinational firms are responding to the slowdown in global trade and the U.S.-Chinese tariffs. They may also reflect longer-term trends in FDI as multinationals reconfigure the scope […]

Stock Buybacks are a problem

(Dan here….written last year, still relevent) By Steve Roth  (originally published at Evonomics) Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer’s New York Times op-ed, “Limit Corporate Stock Buybacks,” has thrown internet gasoline on the buyback debate. The left is waving the flag, and the right is trying to tear it down. The core Sanders/Schumer argument: buybacks extract money from firms, money […]

A note about turnout in yesterday’s elections

A note about turnout in yesterday’s elections I haven’t seen any information yet on how turnout in last night’s elections, particularly in Virginia, which was an “off-off year” election, i.e., no statewide races at all, only state legislative and local races. The state of Virginia keeps turnout statistics online back to 1976. The bottom line is, clearly […]

Some Election Results

I am not quite sure how to begin other than say I am angry at why it has to come to this , and still not enough, before people react. Loudoun County, Virginia: One election event ended positively for a woman who had given Trump’s motorcade (and supposedly Trump) a message of defiance, a one […]