An investigation by ProPublica and NPR has found that Republican state legislators (on behalf of lobbyists working for their local chamber of commerce) have passed laws that cut worker compensation insurance benefits to save employers money. Because of this, now the U.S. taxpayers have to pick up the added costs in Social Security disability, Medicare and Medicaid.
The February unemployment rate dropped yet again on a huge decline of those not considered part of the labor force anymore. The official unemployment rate is now 5.5%, a -0.2 drop from last month. The labor participation rate is at 37 year record lows. From a year ago, the number of people considered not in the labor force has increased by 1.5 million.
Ninety percent of the drop in the labor force since the Great Recession is attributed to young prime-age workers going on Social Security disability. OMG!!! Can this be true? Would the new CBO lie?
The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders report shows factory new orders declined by -0.2% for January. The reason was most likely oil as nondurable goods new orders plunged by -3.1%. Petroleum refinery shipments give another clue as they plunged by -11.6%. Durable goods new orders by themselves increased 2.8%.
The first attack on Social Security this year was with the false accusation that there was rampant fraud in the disability program, when two different reports show only 0.4% fraud in the program — far less than any other government program — and probably far less than employee theft in the private sector — and much less that's found in the defense industry.
With all the heated debates about our skyrocketing debt and ballooning deficit — not to mention, all the rampant fraud in our government social programs — how can the U.S. afford another war? Will we use PAYGO — and pay as we go into war?
Probably the most interesting economic report of those released last week was the January report on the Producer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed the headline producer price index for final demand had fallen by a seasonally adjusted 0.8% for the month, after falling 0.2% in both November and December, and which left year over year wholesale inflation unchanged. Both the monthly decrease and the year over year change were the greatest drop that this new PPI index has ever shown in the two years
ADP's proprietary private payrolls jobs report gives us a monthly gain of 212,000 private sector jobs for February 2015. January's ADP private payroll gains were strongly revised, from 213,000 to 250,000. Financial activities had the highest job growth by ADP's records since 2006, while manufacturing only gained 3,000 jobs.
Last week members of the Alliance for Retired Americans (the Alliance) met with over 120 members of Congress and staffers in their home districts to take a stand on Social Security, Medicare and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Fourth quarter 2014 real GDP was revised 0.4 percentage points lower to 2.2%. That's quite disappointing, although still mediocre growth. The reason for the revision reduction was inventories did not grow nearly as much as originally estimated and imports increased. Real consumer spending was barely revised. Overall Q4 GDP cutting isn't that surprising, more Q3 GDP's lack of trade deficit impact was.
In the month of September 1945, the U.S. had a loss of 1,967,000 jobs, because World War II had ended. In the month of September 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a gain of 1,115,000 jobs.
The Consumer Price Indexdropped -07% for January, the largest monthly drop since December 2008 and the steepest monthly decline in a series of seven. Gasoline prices plummeted -18.7%, the steepest since December 2008. The drop in gas overwhelmed the Consumer Price Index and was the cause of the overall drop.
Is it passive aggression? Is it cruel antagonism? Is it overt animosity? Is it open hostility, bordering on outright hate? Or it's much less evil that; maybe it's just apathy, ignorance or indifference.
The January 2015 New Residential Single Family Home Sales decreased -0.2% to 481,000 in annualized sales. This change is maintaining six year highs and this month is well within the statistical error margin of ±22.2%. . For the year, new single family home sales are up 5.3% from the January 2014 457,000 sales levels.
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