Reader Bruce Hall, opining on the impact of mooted Chinese tariffs on US hog and soybean exports.
As with pork, it looks as if the cost of food is going down for Americans as the Chinese bury their citizens in food price increases.
July Soybean Futures as of Noon, Today
Thanks, Trump!
Source: ino.
“Parts of floor polishers of subheading 8479.89.20; parts of carpet sweepers”
That’s HTS code 84799041, on the Section 301 hit list released today. Mr. Trump has the thanks of a grateful Nation for stopping intellectual property theft in this important category.
The entire list is here.
There’s a 30 60 day consultation period. Since around $50 billion of goods is targeted, China will likely impose proportional measures if and when retaliation occurs.
As you sow…
Another Event Study: Hogs
Source: ino.com.
When Did Minnesota and Wisconsin Fortunes Diverge?
Reader PeakTrader says the fortunes of Minnesota and Wisconsin “began to diverge decade before Walker”. I don’t buy it.
A Deceleration in Economic Activity?
Third release numbers on GDP are out. Growth of Gross Domestic Output — the average of GDP and GDI — is down much more than that of GDP: nearly a percentage point.
Wisconsin and Its Neighbors
Still not the leader of the pack.
Wisconsin CPI-deflated Wages back to January 2011 Levels
Regarding the slowdown in employment growth in February, reader Neil asks:
To what extent could the weakness in February be a payback for the outsized growth in December and January. The three month average for nonfarm growth in Wisconsin looks solid. Also, do you have any thoughts on the average hourly earnings data? Looks like Wisconsin is seeing strong growth over the last year.
Wisconsin February Employment Wrapup: Growth at Standstill, Private NFP Still 18,800 below Gov. Walker’s 250,000 New Jobs Promise
Wisconsin nonfarm payroll employment for January revised down, flatlines for February.
Figure 1: Wisconsin nonfarm payroll employment, February release (dark bold red), January release (red), December (pink), 000’s, s.a, on log scale. Light green shaded period denotes data benchmarked to QCEW data. Source: BLS.