Those Stubborn Facts: Whose Administration was Most Pro-Worker?
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1w ago
After-Inflation Private Sector Average Weekly Wages During First 3 Trump Years: +2.81 percent After-Inflation Private Sector Average Weekly Wages During First 3 Biden Years: -3.39 percent (Source: Average weekly earnings of all employees, 1982-84 dollars, total private sector, seasonally adjusted, Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National), Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ..read more
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Glad I Didn’t Say That! Does the U.S. Treasury Have Its Act Together on China?
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1M ago
“We do not seek to decouple our economy from China’s. This would be damaging to both the U.S. and China and destabilizing for the world.” – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, November 10, 2023 “I am not concerned about the headwinds from China having a large impact on the US economy.” – Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, February 23, 2024 (Sources: “Yellen Says U.S. Wants ‘Healthy’ Economic Ties With China,” by Alan Rappeport, The New York Times, November 10, 2023, Yellen Says U.S. Wants ‘Healthy’ Economic Ties With China, The New York Times (nytimes.com) ) and “China’s woes won’t slow US ..read more
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(What’s Left of) Our Economy: The Real Private Sector Keeps Shrinking As A Job Creator
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1M ago
Last Thursday’s official U.S. jobs report was a big deal not only because the monthly payroll growth for January of 353,000 was nothing less than double most expectations. It also included the latest revisions, some of which once more highlighted a trend that RealityChek has long been following: the greatly shrunken role of industries that deserve to be called “private sector” (PS) as engines of employment growth, and the burgeoning role of government and what I’ve been calling the “subsidized private sector” (SPS). This category features industries (especially health care services) officially ..read more
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(What’s Left of) Our Economy: A Banner Year for U.S. Trade Flows
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1M ago
Today’s official U.S. trade report, which covered both the month of December and the entirety of 2023, was full of excellent news for the U.S. economy. Especially noteworthy was the huge (18.76 percent) drop in the annual deficit last year – the biggest such fall-off since the gap nearly halved during the Great Recession year 2009 – even though 2023 economic growth was strong. Moreover, the 2023 level of $773.43 billion was the lowest since the $652.88 billion of CCP Virus year 2020. Nor did that excellent trade news stop there by any means. The closely watched, still huge goods trade shortfal ..read more
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Those Stubborn Facts: A Little Known Reason Ukraine’s War Effort Is Wheezing
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1M ago
Average age of Ukraine’s soldiers today: Over 40 Ukraine’s minimum draft age: 27 (Source: “Zelensky’s shake-up of military command, meant as a refresh, risks backlash,” By Isabelle Khurshudyan and David L. Stern, The Washington Post, February 1, 2024, Zelensky’s shakeup of military command, meant as a refresh, risks backlash – The Washington Post ..read more
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(What’s Left of) Our Economy: A Blue Skies U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Report
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
1M ago
Domestic manufacturing employment started out the new year on an encouraging note, with the Labor Department’s monthly jobs release reporting that industry added 23,000 positions sequentially. In fact, not only was this total the best since October, 2022’s 31,000. It was higher than the entire manufacturing jobs increase for 2023 (22,000). Revisions were positive, too, with December’s gain upgraded from 6,000 to 8,000, and that annual 2023 figure nearly doubled from the initially reported 12,000. As a result, the new report shows that manufacturing employment in January of 12.979 million is th ..read more
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(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Government Jobs Are Now The U.S. Wage Champions, Too.
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
2M ago
The release yesterday by the Labor Department of the Employment Cost Index (ECI) once again understandably focused attention on perhaps the two leading intertwined economic and political and economic questions of this year. First, in after-inflation terms, has this comprehensive measure of worker compensation (which includes wages, salaries, and benefits) recovered enough since tanking in the first half of 2022 to help Americans better keep up with more slowly rising living costs? If it has, and if the trend continues, will enough voters give President Biden enough credit to strengthen his ree ..read more
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(What’s Left of) Our Economy: A Big Inflation & Politics Mystery Solved?
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
2M ago
Here are two numbers that should be key to resolving an intensifying, crucial economic and political debate – over why so the polls show that most Americans keep giving the Biden administration such lousy economic grades even though the torrid inflation marking its term has become decidedly less torrid. They’re 13.45 percent and 14.19 percent and they represent a major – and perhaps the most important – measures of how much U.S. prices have climbed in total since Mr. Biden’s first full month as President in February 21. That is, they tell us the cumulative loss of purchasing power Americans ha ..read more
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Im-Politic: Some D.C Lefties (Including the Washington Post) are Trying to Coddle Gang Members Further
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
2M ago
Thirty years ago, comedian Jeff Foxworthy launched his classic monologues based on the line, “You might be a redneck if….” They were wildly popular (including among rural Americans) because far from being mean-spirited, they gently (but typically insightfully) poked some fun at often genuinely humorous but distinctive features of a big American subculture that admirably has the ability to laugh at itself. And of course that’s especially true when the routines come from one of your own. I delved into Foxworthy’s comedy because it contrasts so strikingly with the thrust of a recent Washington Po ..read more
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Those Stubborn Facts: China’s Jaw-Dropping Overcapacity
RealityChek
by Alan Tonelson
2M ago
China share of global manufacturing production: 31 percent China share of global manufacturing consumption: 13 percent (Source: “China is stealing growth by dumping its vast excess on the world,” by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph, January 12, 2024, China is stealing growth by dumping its vast excess on the world (telegraph.co.uk ..read more
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