– by New Deal democrat New home sales, which were finally updated yesterday for March (and so still are about three weeks behind their regular schedule now 6 months after the end of the government shutdown!) are perhaps the most leading of all indicators for housing, itself a long leading indicator. In fact, they are […]
– by New Deal democrat Sometimes there just isn’t much drama in economic numbers, and that was certainly the case for this month’s edition of existing home sales. As a mild refresher, even though they constitute about 90% of all housing sales, existing sales are not nearly so important as new home sales, since the latter […]
– by New Deal democrat Jobless claims, along with stock market prices and upscale consumer spending (and recently, manufacturing orders) are one of the few important metrics holding up the economy. And the short summary of this morning’s data is: the new regime of very low claims continued. Initial claims did rise 16,000 to a still […]
– by New Deal democrat As anticipated, the March CPI packed a wallop, up 0.9% for the month and causing the YoY% gain to increase to 3.3%, while core CPI was a tame 0.2% with a YoY% gain of 2.6%. Because of the impact of that big number, I am departing from my usual format to […]
– by New Deal democrat I described two months ago as “the month the birds came home to roost.” Last month, pace Edgar Allen Poe, I said the birds were screeching “recession!” This month, Poe’s birds decided to play with us, screeching instead: “Nevermind!” This was a good report with mainly good internals, with one […]
– by New Deal democrat While much of the official government data is still delayed, months after the end of the shutdown, privately sourced data remains fully up to date. And March data started out with the ISM manufacturing index, which was our second piece of (mainly) good news of the morning. The headline ISM number […]
– by New Deal democrat The two national repeat home sales indexes, from the FHFA and Case-Shiller, were reported this morning and both continued to confirm the gradual abatement in shelter inflation. The Case-Shiller National index (blue in the graphs below) up 0.2% for the three month period ending in January, while the FHFA index […]
Self-sufficiency does not mean stable pricing in the United States as Paul Krugman explains in his earlier March commentary. There is no allegiance to US citizens by oil companies. Give the tax breaks and citizens still pay. “The Impotence of Drill, Baby, Drill,” Paul Krugman, March 10, 2026 America produces a lot of oil. It […]
If the Strait stays closed, look out above. – Paul Krugman March 13, 2026 Source: FRED I did not have time yesterday to do a full post for today, but wanted to say something I suspect many economists are thinking, but which I haven’t seen clearly expressed: the world economy’s very robustness to oil price […]
I subscribe to Robert’s site. Every once and a while, I see a commentary I like. In which case I post it. This commentary by Robert is about a week old. It still has impact and bearing to what is going on with the Trump presidency. It is amazing, he was ever elected considering his […]