⚡ The one where I offer numerous insights and opinions
Among the topics: August jobs, Artemis I, discouraging productivity data, and more
With a long Labor Day weekend here in the US, I thought I would try something different. The late radio host Larry King used to write a kind of stream-of-consciousness column for USA Today newspaper (a previous employer of mine, by the way). “King’s Things” was quite popular. Like Twitter before Twitter. Anyway, I thought I would try to emulate it for this special issue of Faster, Please! Hope everyone enjoys the homage.
Jobs Friday: a consensus-ish +315k payrolls for August vs. a downwardly revised 401k in May, jobless rate up two clicks to 3.7 percent (but for the “good” reason of a bigger labor force that now exceeds the pre-pandemic peak), and a sequential slowing in wage growth. The tight labor market is still pretty tight, however. If Fed boss Jay Powell can achieve Immaculate Disinflation, then we need to see many more reports like this one. … Yes, NASA’s Space Launch System is a big government boondoggle that could turn just about anyone into a libertarian, but we should all hope for a successful launch for Artemis I on Saturday, its second attempt to begin its Moon-circling mission. …
Back to August jobs, I place great stock in this analysis by the much-respected JPMorgan economist Mike Feroli: “Today’s report offers some hints that the imbalance between supply and demand in the labor market is moving in the right direction, though the process of achieving a more sustainable balance still has a very long way to go. Overall, the report keeps alive the hope that a soft landing is still a possibility.” … How could anyone downplay America’s building problem when they see that the new Gateway tunnel connecting New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan will, the NYT reports, “not be completed until 2035, three years later than expected … [and costing] $16.1 billion, up from a previous estimate of $14.1 billion”? So many stories like this. … New US Education Department data show reading and math scores fell sharply during the pandemic, a result that should surprise no one. One of the strongest and most persistent findings of modern economics is that schooling really does help kids become high-functioning adults, including as workers in an advanced, globalized economy. …
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