…since last April prices are up 1.5% for a 2.1% annualized rate over the past nine months. Decomposing the price deflator shows that for goods the index rose a sharp…

…narrow) and real personal consumption of goods (red): Again, a flawless record, with the exception of a few oddball one month outliers. Real sales ex-shelter and real spending on goods…

…Index (CPI), which tracks the price changes of a consistent basket of goods and services over time. As of February 2025, overall prices increased 2.8% over the previous year. Each…

…how bad the damage will be. It could be gradual enshittification, like worse selections of consumer goods, no more spare parts for air conditioning units and industrial systems, and higher…

…effectively managed unprecedented levels of mail-in election ballots and deliveries of vital goods, from medication to cleaning products and food. USPS has also delivered more than 900 million Covid test kits, helping the nation…

…profits, and real sales per capita. So let me take a K.I.S.S. look at each of those, plus several other salient short leading indicators; namely, real spending on goods, real…

…goods-producing part of the economy as a whole is very slightly contracting. It will be interesting to see if this is reflected in a decline in goods-producing jobs in Friday’s…

…mind you, simply speculative. The closest to rigorous analysis I read was that goods inflation was more than services inflation, which would make sense because few “services” can be imported….

…service sector spending frequently powers right through recessions. It is a downturn in the broad goods-producing sector which is a leading indicator. In the past few months, there have been…

…powers to “block” transactions, for example, or to “regulate” or “prohibit” importation of foreign goods if the president thinks it necessary. Powerful stuff indeed, but, notably, the statute does not use tariffs, duties, or…