From the Wisconsin Department of Revenue – September issue. The regular publication of Economic Forecast reports (latest here) and the innovation of monthly updates contrasts strongly with the near economic news blackout in the second Scott Walker administration (discussed here). DoR has also added a lot more data visualizations, here.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
GDP at Risk? (update)
An increasing amount of GDP is accounted for by counties with rising fatalities, a slight change from a couple weeks ago.
X-Files, 2021 Edition
It seems every decade or so, there is a bout of paranoia about government statistics, to wit, a reader asserts the BLS is hiding data on median wages:
Lumber Prices
Fell 34.3% (not annualized, in log terms) in July.
Deceleration – The July CPI Release
From BLS today:
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.9 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.4 percent before seasonal adjustment.
Business Cycle Indicators as of August 2
IHS-MarkIt (nee Macroeconomic Advisers) released monthly GDP today. The July employment situation will be released this Friday.
Geographical Diversity in Journal Editing (and the J Int Money Finance)
Angus, Atalay, Newton and Ubilava write “Editorial boards of leading economics journals show high institutional concentration and modest geographic diversity”. There’s no doubt diversity of all types is an issue of concern in the economics professions, and here’s one more dimension.
Still Crazy After All These Years
Although there is something to be said for consistency. For instance, I see someone blogging (!):
Why Did US Economic Policy Uncertainty Rise So Much During the Pandemic?
I was doing a review of measured economic policy uncertainty, and found an interesting divergence between the US and Europe:
“this [Covid-19] pandemic ain’t 1918–never was, never will be”
— Comment by rick stryker, August 19, 2020.