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The economy is GREAT!...if you don't count inflation

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Let's say one month you spend $100 on groceries. The next month you spend $120 for the exact same groceries. According to the government we all became richer because you are spending more for the exact same stuff.

Durable goods orders beat expectations with a 1.3% month-on-month increase in July. But the apparent strength is due to higher prices, not stronger activity. In fact, deflating orders by the producer price index for durable manufactured goods shows a 9.4% year-on-year drop in real orders, the worst since early 2002.

Am I picking out one little report to try and make a big point? Nope. Allow me to dig through pretty much every single economic report the government releases.

Friday Movie Night - William Greider Edition

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hot buttered popcorn

It's Friday Night! Party Time!

Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

This weeks video clip theme is William Greider. Greider is a fantastic journalist and author who covers economics, trade and markets. Now while some economists have criticized him now that it is 2008, maybe he was more dead on than they care to admit? He goes into great depth, certainly the most detailed analysis that is not written for an Academic audience. Greider is the Cassandra of globalization, as being advanced in practice.

On Wal-Mart and the model of cheap labor-cheap prices:

The Middle Class Squeeze - Redux

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middle class squeeze
Today, personal incomes fell 0.7%, the largest single drop in 3 years. Consumer spending slowed also. What a surprise, Americans are tapped out, credit card debt is now estimated at $1 trillion, double from 1996 and unpaid debt has increased 22% from one year ago. Here are some statistics from EPI.

 

 

 

While the poor get poorer

real median income united states

 

Ah, but don't worry, the rich are getting richer: 

Populist Politician Pick - Barry Welsh

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The Persnickety Populist Presents.... The Populist Politician Pick of the Week.

Populism Soapbox

The Election season is upon us.   With all of the pontificatin' and politickin', who really has the United States national interest, the middle class, and working America in mind really when it comes to policy? 

Tough to figure out eh?

Most Populists want dramatic trade policy change based on sound economic and labor economics theory. Most Populists want a removal of corporate corruption from government. Most Populists want representatives to actually represent what their constituents want. Finally, most Populists want American workers placed front and center in any policy strategy.

Each Week, until the election, The Economic Populist will overview candidates who are particularly strong in trade, economic, labor positions.

Would we truly be racist if we demanded "Made in the USA"?

Amazingly, in the past several months I've been called a racist 3 times, more than anytime in my life!  The first time was when the Jeremiah Wright thing broke out and I defended the guy, I was called bigoted against whites.  Then, just the other I was called first "pro-Black" then "racist against whites" because I favored Barack Obama over that walking museum piece from Arizona.  Now, today, the conservative economic blog site, Carpe Diem, is labeling people like me racist for demanding things be made in this country!

Democratic Convention - Energy & Healthcare, What about Manufacturing? - Open Thread

Just out of curiosity, tonight I just started watching today's DNC, missed the first hour (6pm CST).  So far I've heard a ton about healthcare, and Steny Hoyer has said something about jobs. Well, actually, right now, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who is doing a question and answer session using a panel. She's actually specifically mentioned industrial jobs. The theme so far in the questioning is that clean energy will equal more jobs.

Manufacturing Tuesday or Monday part deux!

Yesterday I had hit on the situation going on with the automakers. Originally, I had intended to include some other stories, but the first piece was large enough (perhaps too large?) that I realized that I had to push the other pieces. Well, as promised, we got some interesting stuff. First on the auto front a cool piece on zero emission cars. Next we got fallout from biofuels and water preservation. Third, it seems the Chinese aren't so thirsty for the black stuff right now. Lastly could the current woes Australia's mining sector tell us something?

Hydrogen cars reach a milestone....no really..literally!

Manufacturing Monday: The so-called Big Three, and the taxpayers' money

Greetings folks, the start of new week and thus we kick off another episode of Manufacturing Monday! Never a dull moment when it comes to covering stuff that either goes into the products you buy, or the impact that that consumption leads to. Now originally, I had these other items on bio-fuels, hydrogen cars, China and oil, and a few other things. But I see now that my section on the bailout of the US automakers is so big, that the whole thing is too long. So, if it is OK with you, I will post those items tomorrow.

A road often driven by these three

North Pole Stand-off

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Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States are squaring off over 1.2 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles) of Arctic seabed, thought to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Experts estimate the ridge has ten billion tons of gas and oil deposits and significant sources of diamonds, gold, tin, manganese, nickel, lead and platinum.

Obama and TINA: A scandal we'll never hear about

There's a famous phrase coined by Margaret Thatcher to describe the inexorable march to a brave new world in which social democracy in Britain would be cast into the scrapheap of history.

TINA, there is no alternative:

There is no alternative (shortened as TINA) was a slogan of which Margaret Thatcher, the radical British Prime Minister was fond. In economics, politics, and political economy, it has come to mean that despite capitalism's problems, "there is no alternative" to the status quo of their economic system and neoliberalism. This is the central slogan of neoliberalism, arguing that free markets, free trade, and capitalist globalization are the only way in which modern societies can go, as any deviation from their doctrine is certain to lead to disaster.

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