Category Archives: Economics

The Washington Post Hides the Lede: The Food Prices Edition

Posted on February 5, 2024 by mikethemadbiologist

In another story about high food prices, The Washington Post hides the lede in the fourth paragraph. See if you can find it! But there is no immediate fix for policymakers. Grocery prices remain elevated due to a mixture of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Economics | 2 Comments

The Rents Are Too Damn High–And Democrats Should Do Something About It

Posted on November 29, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

But why do people think the economy is not good? (boldface mine) It now requires $119.27 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic. Since early 2020, prices have risen about as … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats, Economics, Housing | 3 Comments

A Great Crankiness Throughout the Land

Posted on November 22, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

There have been a whole spate of articles (here’s a decent one) attempting to determine why, despite some strong economic indicators, people say they’re pessimistic about the economy–even as they spend more money, which is usually associated with boom times. … Continue reading →

Posted in A Great Crankiness, Economics | 5 Comments

COVID and Economic Pessimism

Posted on September 20, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Economist Claudia Sahm, both at Substack and Bloomberg, makes the argument that COVID is to blame for poor consumer sentiment. From Bloomberg: Lots of reasons have been given for the gloominess, including political partisanship, the media’s focus on negative news … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, Economics | Comments Off on COVID and Economic Pessimism

It’s All About Housing Prices

Posted on July 21, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Well, obviously, not everything. But Ned Resnikoff makes a good point about the context in which the entertainment industry strikes are occurring (boldface mine): Characteristically, I’d like to dedicate the rest of this post to discussing the last issue: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing, Unions | Comments Off on It’s All About Housing Prices

One Reason the Press Corps Might Be Describing a Reasonably Good Economy as ‘Poor’

Posted on July 14, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

It’s because their own personal economies are not doing so well and are very precarious. From an article about the implosion of the NY Times’ sport desk (boldface mine): There was a retirement party Sunday night for longtime San Francisco … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, News Media | Comments Off on One Reason the Press Corps Might Be Describing a Reasonably Good Economy as ‘Poor’

Rep. Kaptur Is Right to Call for a Focus on Middle-Income Americans but…

Posted on April 14, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

…the data she’s marshalling don’t really say what she thinks they do. Building on some data put together by Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Axios produced a figure claiming to demonstrate that Democratics represent wealthier congressional districts. While I agree with … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats, Economics | Comments Off on Rep. Kaptur Is Right to Call for a Focus on Middle-Income Americans but…

Yes, SVB Was a Bailout

Posted on March 23, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Just not of the people many people thought it was. Last week, some asshole with a blog noted this about the Silicon Valley Bank takeover: What I can’t wrap my head around is how stupid the venture capitalists who backed … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Economics | 1 Comment

It’s Like Über, but for Deposit Insurance

Posted on March 13, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

In light of the Silicon Valley Bank bank run and subsequent rescue, David Dayen points out there’s a solution for businesses, known as Insured Cash Sweep, which chops up your money into FDIC-insurable units of $250,000. That would mean these … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Economics | 3 Comments

When Government Spending Prevents Personal Debt

Posted on February 24, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

It’s a pretty obvious phenomenon: when federal spending is cut, personal debt rises (or at least wealth declines). This will show up in credit scores (boldface mine): Today, we look at a big, fat map of credit scores reproduced from … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Economics, Healthcare | Comments Off on When Government Spending Prevents Personal Debt