Kevin Drum 🕸

I know this isn't a joking matter, but . . . That's my kind of report: everyone is to blame. But wait: 400 law enforcement officers? 400? What in the everlasting fuck was going on down in Uvalde?

The US may be suffering through high inflation, but so is everyone else. And our overall economy looks pretty good. The rest of the world sure thinks so, anyway: That's the exchange rate of the dollar against a broad basket of other currencies, and it's been going nowhere but up for the last year and ...continue reading "Raw data: The US dollar is the strongest currency in the world"

Monkeypox reporting has been atrocious. Alternatively, I've lost the ability to use Google and am now all alone in the universe. I'll let you decide. The question I have on my mind is whether the CDC has responded to monkeypox with an effective testing regime. According to the bulk of the news media, along with ...continue reading "Does anyone know what’s really going on with monkeypox testing?"

A few days ago the New York Post reported that the FDA had delayed its inspection of a monkeypox vaccine facility in Denmark. As a result, the US was unable to import vaccine doses made in the new facility, and this in turn was laying waste to an entire generation of Americans. Here's a followup ...continue reading "Monkeypox vaccine is on its way from Denmark"

Here is Hilbert looking entranced by . . . Charlie, of course. Charlie was chasing a moth around and Hilbert was pondering whether to join him. Sometimes he does, but this time he just watched.

From Ruy Teixeira, a longtime progressive scholar, on why he's gotten tired of the relentless identity politics among the left: I’m just a social democrat, man. Trying to make the world a better place. I don't know if Teixeira is right about conditions at the Center for American Progress, where he worked for the past ...continue reading "Quote of the day: “I’m just a social democrat, man.”"

According to the Wall Street Journal, retail sales were up 1% in June. This is, needless to say, incorrect. When you account for inflation retail sales were down -0.3% from May. (As John Maynard Keynes sort of said, I can whine about correcting for inflation longer than you can stay sane listening to me. You ...continue reading "Retail spending was down in June"

Are you tired of inflation geekery? Me too, actually, but I got curious about something so I'm going to show it to you anyway. Voila: Let me explain. First I charted the past year of data for four measures of core inflation: CPI (Consumer Price Index) PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) PPI Goods (Producer Price Index ...continue reading "Yet another geeky look at inflation"

This morning I went in for a post-op visit for my new eyes, and everything seems fine. They're still a bit blurry, but basically OK, and I have high hopes this time around that they're going to function really nicely after a few days of settling in and letting the swelling go down. The lens ...continue reading "New eyes are working fine so far"

This is the Place de la Concorde in central Paris. Why not the Place de la Bastille today? Because we didn't go there and I don't have any pictures of it. Besides, the Bastille was stormed and then destroyed by mobs of woke Frenchmen anyway, so why bother? As the favored place for guillotining kings ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Take a look at the subhead in the Washington Post this morning: Nothing? Really? How about this? And there's this, released alongside the inflation report: This is certainly not good news for workers. But if it's a wage-price spiral you're worried about, it's terrific news. Finally, if you could wait a day, BLS released the ...continue reading "Yes, there was good news in the June inflation report"

With inflation in the news today, aren't you curious about how the rest of the world is doing? Sure you are: This only goes through May, since it takes a little while for the OECD to collect everything and put it up. In another week or two we'll see if everyone else joined us in ...continue reading "Raw data: Inflation around the world"

Along with its inflation report, the BLS also released this today: Real wages continue to go down, down, down. Workers are making less than they did before the pandemic—or will by next month, anyway. This is yet another reason to be skeptical that inflation is baked into the economy unless we throw ourselves into a ...continue reading "Hourly earnings were down yet again in June"

This is a little patch of school bells, everyone's favorite flower, on the side of Laguna Canyon Road near the Blue Bell Foundation for Cats.

After that dismal inflation report we could all use a little good news, couldn't we? I forgot to post gasoline prices on Monday, so here they are today: This time I even adjusted for inflation! I wouldn't normally do that for a four-month series, but since inflation has been running high I figured it might ...continue reading "Raw data: The price of gasoline is still dropping"

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, your inflation rate for June: As usual, I'm less interested in the headline number and more interested in core CPI, which dropped another tenth of a point last month, ending at 5.9%. It has now declined 0.6% since February. If you want a sense of how inflation is running ...continue reading "Chart of the day: Inflation in June"

It's been a while since I posted one of these. That's because I went a month without chemo while I was in Paris and then figured it was hardly worth doing the test until I had gotten home and restarted the chemo for a month. And the news is good: I don't like this Empliciti ...continue reading "Health Update"

In this chart, the top (orange) line represents the annual earnings of Gen Xers. This age group has been part of Gen X for the entire period shown. Likewise, the bottom (blue) line represents the annual earnings of Millennials. This age group has been the heart of the Millennials for the entire period shown. Since ...continue reading "Raw data: Earnings of Gen X vs. Millennials"

This is the owner of one of the famous bookstalls that line the quay of the Seine in Paris. These days most of them sell tourist stuff, back issues of magazines, and copies of old prints that are the same in every stall, but a few still sell old books or, in this case, old ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

My governor has now signed two gun regulation bills that rely on citizen lawsuits for enforcement: California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he has signed a bill allowing private citizens to sue companies including gun manufacturers for violating the state’s firearms regulations. It is one of a pair of bills passed by the state’s ...continue reading "California sets up awesome showdown with Supreme Court"