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

Good news on real aggregate payrolls, but an additional yellow flag on jobs

 – by New Deal democrat With the update on inflation earlier this week, let’s take a look a real average wages and real aggregate payrolls. Plus there is a significant update to my yellow flag caution on the employment situation. First, nominally nonsupervisory wages rose slightly under 0.3% in November, while consumer prices rose slightly […]

Real aggregate payrolls rise to new high as CPI ex-shelter continues somnolent

Real aggregate payrolls rise to new high as CPI ex-shelter continues somnolent  – by New Deal democrat With few exceptions, the November CPI report once again demonstrated how important fictitious shelter is to its calculation, as well as how important the inflection point of $5 gas in June 2022 has been. Headline inflation rose only […]

Real wages unchanged, real aggregate payrolls rose slightly in April

Real wages unchanged, real aggregate payrolls rose slightly in April Consumer inflation for April was +0.3%, the lowest monthly advance since last August. The number was helped by a big decline in energy prices, down -2.7% for the month, and also by used cars, down -0.4% for the month. In this post I’ll report on […]