thought this was pretty interesting and honestly a little surprising. i don't think this is going to be a common vector for transmission to i think it's probably good news?
https://medium.com/thumbtack-blog/data-exactly-how-hard-covid-19-is-hitting-local-services-cf7737775f6e
i think these %s are compared to march 1 rather than compared to, e.g. what they were on that day a year ago. so the fact that home services work is *up* is not necessarily surprising because people work on their homes in the summer. but still!
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Thursday, 28 May 2020 03:32 (three years ago) link
"i don't think this is going to be a common vector for transmission to i think it's probably good news?"
"this" = an electrician or something coming to do work on your house, not like a peripatetic singing teacher coming to your house.
full data here goes back to march 1 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSLW6qVKKs9-SpvFVki3ZRrsr8EWfLokMg5JGn6upbw1pg1krEkwgcxED3jfLE7dqSZ1WkS5zVlvjJg/pubhtml#
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Thursday, 28 May 2020 03:36 (three years ago) link
Anecdotal evidence gathered by me would indicate that DIY projects are definitely on the upswing as people get fidgety at home. Iām also not at all surprised that folks would be bringing in the pros to take care of household projects that have been on the back burner, what with all the money people are saving on gas and by cooking at home.
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 28 May 2020 03:41 (three years ago) link
ha it will be interesting to see how much un-permitted residential construction / improvements are being made rn ... though it feels like the transition to submitting plans, etc. online rather than in person isn't that difficult.
― sarahell, Thursday, 28 May 2020 19:14 (three years ago) link
a friend posted on facebook that he had been looking for a bag of shredded rubber to finish a landscaping job for weeks, apparently they are as gone as the nintendo switch
― crystal-brained yogahead (map), Thursday, 28 May 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
such a pain to shred your own, but it does make for a fresher hellscape i mean landscape
― Morton Koopa Jr. Sings Elvis (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 28 May 2020 20:18 (three years ago) link
southwestern US teal formica shortage
― Morton Koopa Jr. Sings Elvis (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, 28 May 2020 20:26 (three years ago) link
welcome to the shitbin
Stephen Moore, economic adviser to the White House, on the jobs numbers: āIt takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of any phase 4 -- we don't need it now. There's no reason to have a major spending bill. The sense of urgent crisis is very greatly dissipated by the report.ā— Jeffrey Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 5, 2020
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Friday, 5 June 2020 16:46 (three years ago) link
Everything's all better! Yay!
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 5 June 2020 16:46 (three years ago) link
His own obstinate GOP Senate doesn't even agree with that as of this week
― I am a free. I am not man. A number. (Neanderthal), Friday, 5 June 2020 16:47 (three years ago) link
at the risk of being extremely paranoid, do we believe these numbers?
bls is of course supposed to be independent and insulated, but so are inspectors general
― mookieproof, Friday, 5 June 2020 17:54 (three years ago) link
i have a friend who works in labor statistics stuff, they looked bonkers to him. i think his suggestion was that maybe a lot of covid-related work loss was being counted differently.
― j., Friday, 5 June 2020 17:59 (three years ago) link
i've mentioned this elsewhere but the markets are nearing their all time highs very quickly. It's not the real economy but certain people don't seem to care as long as they can say "the economy" is fine.
― Yerac, Friday, 5 June 2020 18:02 (three years ago) link
a lot of the "re-employed" are furloughed returning to work, but they could be counting people who returned to work only to be told their job would be ending permanently at the end of the week (as some friends of mine), or coming in for a day or two for re-opening meetings or having their hours severely cut so they're working at a fraction of what they made before. Many of these people can't even file for underemployment, as for example in Florida, you can only file for underemployment if you make less than $275/week, which is their maximum benefit.
so I'm sure the stats are "accurate" from the 10,000 foot view, but they probably don't mean what people think they meet when examined up-close.
― I am a free. I am not man. A number. (Neanderthal), Friday, 5 June 2020 18:04 (three years ago) link
I saw that it's a lot of forloughed and hospitality workers going back to work, but employment numbers for blacks and Asians actually went down.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 5 June 2020 18:07 (three years ago) link
let's see how many more bodies are nbd
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 June 2020 18:08 (three years ago) link
that's the other part.
― I am a free. I am not man. A number. (Neanderthal), Friday, 5 June 2020 18:10 (three years ago) link
There's gonna be a different picture once the credit card and auto loan and mortgage defaults start to pile up, but that could take a while to show up in quarterly earnings results.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 5 June 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
there was a headline today that Hertz went up 825% since they declared bankruptcy and their shares plummeted.
― Yerac, Friday, 5 June 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link
"Unexpected strength in employment, hours, and earnings in May implies less of a decline in second-quarter PCE than previously expected. As a result, we raised our tracking forecast of second-quarter GDP growth by 0.5 percentage point to -41.5%." āIHS Markit— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) June 5, 2020
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Friday, 5 June 2020 19:29 (three years ago) link
oh, what a relief
― all cats are beautiful (silby), Friday, 5 June 2020 19:34 (three years ago) link
Nasdaq all time high today really good stuff
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Friday, 5 June 2020 22:34 (three years ago) link
trade of a lifetime
― voltmeter said i had potential (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 6 June 2020 00:37 (three years ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/05/may-2020-jobs-report-misclassification-error/
When the U.S. governmentās official jobs report for May came out on Friday, it included a note at the bottom saying there had been a major āerrorā indicating that the unemployment rate likely should be higher than the widely reported 13.3 percent rate.The special note said that if this āmisclassification errorā had not occurred, the āoverall unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported,ā meaning the unemployment rate would be about 16.3 percent for May.
The special note said that if this āmisclassification errorā had not occurred, the āoverall unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported,ā meaning the unemployment rate would be about 16.3 percent for May.
― j., Saturday, 6 June 2020 04:44 (three years ago) link
My wife works in labor and employment and she has seen a lot of employers furloughing employees over the last two months. A lot of these employees won't end up being recalled.
Also, employers who received PPP loans were required to maintain certain payroll for two months as a condition to getting the loans forgiven. I would anticipate further layoffs when this period is over and employers are no longer required to maintain payroll.
― Night of the Living Crustheads (PBKR), Saturday, 6 June 2020 12:09 (three years ago) link
Yeah friends of mine who are currently unemployed or furloughed are balking at mgmt who are poking around reopening offices. No one feels safe yet
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Saturday, 6 June 2020 14:25 (three years ago) link
Lately I've felt like the guy on the airplane who is the only one who can see the monster on the wing. The economy, despite a bounce-back effect in some data and a stock market recovery, is suffering a profound collapse of demand.Don't lose the thread.https://t.co/8KXXL4SZHx— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) June 6, 2020
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Saturday, 6 June 2020 16:55 (three years ago) link
my economy means i don't read shit in the ny times anymore
― crystal-brained yogahead (map), Saturday, 6 June 2020 17:03 (three years ago) link
ā j., Saturday, June 6, 2020 12:44 AM (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
these errors exist every month; if you include errors from both months the decline in unemployment is actually larger
― flopson, Saturday, 6 June 2020 17:07 (three years ago) link
Two things to note about unemployment misclassification in today's jobs report:1. If misclassified absent workers had been counted as unemployed as intended, U3 would have been +3pp higher.2. But this error was +4.8pp last month.So official U3 understated the M-M decline.— Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) June 5, 2020
― flopson, Saturday, 6 June 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
there is a current bill heading to the President that would extend the duration of the PPP loan forgiveness period -- (from 8 weeks to 24 weeks, i think). It's also creating this weird system where there are people on unemployment who don't want to go back to jobs that could still just be temporary because the unemployment benefits are more stable, meanwhile employers need workers in order to qualify for loan forgiveness, so there is some weird hiring going on. I am in this facebook group for accountants where people are posting that business owners w/PPP loans are asking them if they could hire their children as employees, like 9 year olds, like "will this violate child labor laws" age kids.
― sarahell, Sunday, 7 June 2020 18:03 (three years ago) link
a current bill heading to the President
sorry not to know already, but do you know if this is yet to pass the Senate, or now in conference committee, or ready for its final vote, or now voted on and awaiting signature?
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 7 June 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
interesting if true
WASHINGTON (AP) ā The U.S. economy entered a recession in February, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record.— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 8, 2020
― š šš¢šØ (caek), Monday, 8 June 2020 17:47 (three years ago) link
š§
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 8 June 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/qqP5V8n.png
― Nhex, Monday, 8 June 2020 20:18 (three years ago) link
ehehehe
― all cats are beautiful (silby), Monday, 8 June 2020 20:20 (three years ago) link
@flopson i have a biomed hedge fund friend who is MMT-curious and asked for a reasonable/intelligent book to read on the topic and i didn't know what was good but thought you might can you recommend anything?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link
https://stephaniekelton.com/book/
"the deficit myth" just came out today!
― methinks dababy doth bop shit too much (m bison), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:08 (three years ago) link
Does MMT depend on us being a global empire? Because that seems to be a big component of why we can carry our deficits.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:37 (three years ago) link
seems probable that MMT works so long as you're the global currency of choice
― methinks dababy doth bop shit too much (m bison), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:39 (three years ago) link
Kelton was a guest on Chris Hayes' podcast fairly recently. very worthwhile discussion, esp. if you don't want to read an entire book about the subject.
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 17:05 (three years ago) link
Doesn't being the global currency of choice basically depend on having a ton of aircraft carriers and ICMBs xp?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:01 (three years ago) link
ya
― methinks dababy doth bop shit too much (m bison), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link
ā Mordy, Tuesday, June 9, 2020 10:53 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
i dont recommend reading a book about MMT as i consider it largely a scam and a distraction from actually good arguments for deficit spending or debt monetization, and harmful in its anti-welfare state tendencies. i have never read a book on it, i have only read 10,000 posts. based on the reviews iāve read so far of keltonās book, it seems like it contains some howlers. but reading it alongside critiques would probably be good. itās almost certainly less boring than Moserās textbook, and sheās a good writer.
in general MMT is either (1) trivial but pretends it is radical (pretending its description of consolidated fed-treasury differs from rest of monetary economics), (2) wrong (contains a lot of weird arguments anti-welfare spending and pro-job guarantees on the basis the former is inflationary), (3) right for the wrong reasons (MMT implicitly assumes permanent demand deficiency rather than demonstrating it)
i realize i avoid getting into the nitty gritty in these threads, thatās because (1) when im on here im procrastinating doing my own nitty gritty economics research (2) getting into the morass of accounting details is how they getcha. however im teaching some friends of mine macroeconomics in a slack channel rn, will post some stuff when i get to monetary/MMT/japan. i promise you it will be super boring and disappointing :)
I donāt remember if i posted this last time but this conversation between a mainstream monetary guy and an MMT guy shows how little daylight there is and how dull the differences are http://andolfatto.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-conversation-with-eric-tymoigne-on.html?m=1
― flopson, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/coronavirus-banks-collapse/612247/
The reforms were well intentioned, but, as weāll see, they havenāt kept the banks from falling back into old, bad habits. After the housing crisis, subprime CDOs naturally fell out of favor. Demand shifted to a similarāand similarly riskyāinstrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businessesāspecifically, troubled businesses. CLOs bundle together so-called leveraged loans, the subprime mortgages of the corporate world. These are loans made to companies that have maxed out their borrowing and can no longer sell bonds directly to investors or qualify for a traditional bank loan. There are more than $1 trillion worth of leveraged loans currently outstanding. The majority are held in CLOs.
― j., Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:46 (three years ago) link
stonks
― mookieproof, Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:01 (three years ago) link
more like stanks, amirite?
― Life is a banquet and my invitation was lost in the mail (j.lu), Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:04 (three years ago) link
to what extent is the massive fed preemptive action currently underway reducing/not reducing the risk from that?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:14 (three years ago) link
lol at all of this
last week: stocks rise 5% on covid optimism!!!
*5 days pass, in which absolutely nothing happens that was not already widely expected*
stocks fall 5% on glum covid outlook!!!
― our god is a might god (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:23 (three years ago) link
supposedly the huge gains of the last couple months were predicated on the fed taking strong action and giving investors confidence that the world would not explode
which always seemed like bullshit to me. i don't think it's a coordinated effort or anything, but the last few weeks have just seemed like willingly suspending disbelief to pump the market back in and squeeze the last juices out of it before manufacturing slowdowns and a collapsing real estate market become so obvious that even investors have to acknowledge it.
― our god is a might god (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:26 (three years ago) link