I had to shell out a grand for new brake lines on one old car last month, and nearly half that on a tune-up for the other.
Beats buying a new car by a long shot, but holy hell, motor vehicle repair up 15% yoy.
Here’s the inflation breakdown for August 2025 — in one chart
It all betrays an inability to think.
Bloomberg here said:
... The number of workers on payrolls will likely be revised down by a record 911,000, or 0.6%, according to the government’s preliminary benchmark revision out Tuesday. The final figures are due early next year. ...
No, it's not at all likely.
It's a preliminary number for crying out loud, the size of which reflects more on the increasing difficulty BLS is having gathering the monthly data in more or less real time than it does on the data itself.
Bloomberg then followed that up with a scary chart of previous preliminary benchmark revision estimates, as if those represented reality, too. And then people who should know better repeated the scary chart.
This story went particularly hysterical about it: The BLS Hallucinated a Million Jobs. The Fed Can't Fix This.
But we've known since February what the BLS really thinks the final numbers are, in thousands, and all these irresponsible sources just leave that out, because . . . clicks:
What in the hell is going on in Utah?
The shooter is still at large.
Housing affordability hit a record low 17.22% in 2022.
That is to say, median household income bought 17.22% of the median sales price of a house sold in the United States in 2022.
The 2024 figure is 19.98%, which is just a little lower than in 2013, when it was 20.12%. Affordability also is about where it was in the middle of the Bush 43 administration, the height of the previous housing bubble.
As you can plainly see, houses were much more affordable in the 1990s, and even more affordable before that. It's a picture of declining affordability overall since then.
Housing did get briefly more affordable in 2009 . . . when 5.5 million people lost their jobs and completed foreclosures were on their way to 6+ million.
Median household income in this data is updated but once a year, and for 2024 that was yesterday.
The climb-down from last month's report for July 2025 at 3.655% year over year was YUGE.
The numbers have been quite volatile for the last four months.
In today's release, the yoy numbers for Nov 2024 through Mar 2025 remain unchanged from last month's report. The five month average of these for the yoy increase in core wholesale prices has been 3.711%.
Last month the average for April through July came in lower, at 3.144% year over year, but that has now been revised even lower in this month's report, by 2%, to 3.081% yoy.
Combined with the fresh August reading at 2.827% yoy, clearly the trend for the rate increases has been lower overall.
But these levels are far higher than the average 1.629% which prevailed 2012-2020 inclusive. Our new lower August reading is a rate still nearly 74% higher than that.
The wholesale price environment remains highly inflationary compared with the pre-pandemic era.
Poland says it shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace during attack on Ukraine
... Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992. The share of 12th-graders who were proficient slid by 2 percentage points between 2019 and 2024—to 35% in reading and 22% in math. ...
More.
And they can vote.
If Trump were really serious about deportations, he'd be going after the employers, which would be far easier than going after eleventy million illegals or whatever it is.
That's how you know this is all fake, all performative.
It is deportation theatre, from beginning to end.
The goal is 3,000 deportations a day, which over four years is only 4.3 million.
It is unserious policy, for an unserious country, but it is going to cost serious money.
Average US Treasury yields by duration Fri Sep 5, 2025:
Bills 3.96
Notes 3.69
Bonds 4.75
Aggregate 3.98 (down 4.5% from Aug average).
The aggregate was already down 6.5% from January in August. The only yields still holding up had been in bonds, which gave up 11 basis points on Friday, yielding 4.75 vs. the August average of 4.86, down about 2.2%.
The rosy scenario, which isn't rosy, is for stagflation. The worse scenario is for recession, possibly signaled by the revision to June payrolls, now down 13k.
You know, like in January 2001, but past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The point is, people are spooked.
Ah yes, the current incompetence is but a dim reflection of the past incompetence, but a reflection nonetheless.
... Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called “homestead exemptions” for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records. The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence.
Local tax officials in both states told Reuters that claiming more than one home as a primary residence isn’t generally allowed in their jurisdictions and could be punishable by fines or back taxes. After Reuters contacted tax officials in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire about the dual claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday said the township “as of today” would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there. ...
It isn’t clear how much the Pultes may have saved each year because of the Michigan claim, but on Friday property records already indicated the exemption there is now zero.
Bye dad!
Yeah, that's what we're afraid of.
Katie, bar the door.
Gold prices hit fresh record highs on Friday after a soft U.S. jobs report cemented hopes of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut, fuelling fresh momentum for bullion’s blistering rally.
Spot gold was up 0.9% at $3,577.33 per ounce,. Prices hit a record high of $3,582.71 and were up 3.7% so far this week. U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.9% to $3,637.00. ...
More.
Total nonfarm gubmint: 74,750 per month
Total nonfarm private: 80,375 per month
Those rascally Democrats over at BLS, my word.
Obviously more heads need to roll at the Bureau of Labor Statistics because in Trump's wonderful economy payrolls must have risen a lot more than 22k in August lololol.
Payrolls rose 22,000 in August, less than expected in further sign of hiring slowdown
... Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 22,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payrolls to rise by 75,000.
The report showed a marked slowdown from the July increase of 79,000, which was revised up by 6,000. Revisions also showed a net loss of 13,000 in June after the prior estimate was lowered by 27,000. ...
Ford’s redesigned three-row Expedition SUV is seeing explosive growth.
The Detroit automaker reported Wednesday that it sold 8,724 Expeditions in August, up 53.7% from the same time last year and marking its best sales in 21 years. It’s sold 61,022 of the vehicles so far this year, a 13.1% increase from the same period in 2024. ...
More.
... GM will stop production of two electric Cadillac SUVs at its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, during the month of December, according to a person familiar with the matter and communications to GM employees viewed by Reuters.
The plant produces the midsize Cadillac Lyriq — a relative hit and one of GM’s top-selling EVs — and the Vistiq, a larger electric SUV.
GM also plans to significantly curtail production of those vehicles during the first five months of next year by temporarily laying off one of its two shifts of workers, according to the sources. The company will additionally shutter the plants for one week in October and November.
The automaker is also planning to indefinitely delay the start of a second shift at an assembly plant near Kansas City, which is still slated to begin production of the Chevy Bolt EV later this year, the person familiar with the matter said. ...
More.
MEXICO CITY — U.S. forces could have stopped the boat that officials say was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, but President Donald Trump chose instead to destroy it, killing 11 people on board, to send a deterrent message to traffickers. ...
The action was a dramatic escalation for the U.S. in its fight against drug traffickers. Lawmakers and legal analysts questioned the legality of launching a lethal strike against civilians in international waters outside of an armed conflict.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that the strike was “conducted against the operations of a designated terrorist organization and was taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations,” an apparent reference to the 2001 authorization for the use of military force enacted by Congress after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that year. It authorizes the use of force against the perpetrators of the al-Qaeda attacks and to prevent “future acts of international terrorism.” Various lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for years to repeal the measure, including Vice President JD Vance, who as a senator in 2023 co-sponsored the End Endless Wars Act. ...
The U.S. Coast Guard sometimes shoots out the engines of go-fast boats during maritime interdictions, the former agent said, but killing the crew is new for the United States. ...
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, said the strike violated international law. The U.S. is not in armed conflict with Venezuela or its criminal elements, she noted, which means it violated the suspects’ right to life. ...
Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the attack “murder.”
“We have been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them,” Petro said. “Those who transport drugs are not the big drug lords, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific. ...
More.
Safe-haven gold rally gains further momentum after soft US data
... Spot gold was up 1.2% to $3,576.59 per ounce by 2:25 p.m. EDT (1825 GMT), after hitting a record high of $3,578.50. ...
... Tariffs are set to bring in $172.1 billion in 2025, according to the Tax Foundation, which would be a nice financial boost to a country with a ballooning budget deficit.
“If this ruling is upheld, refunds of existing tariffs are on the table which could cause a surge in Treasury issuance and yields,” wrote Ed Mills of Raymond James in a note. ...
More.
... Spot gold was steady at $3,476.48 per ounce, after hitting a record high of $3,508.50 earlier in the session. Bullion has gained 32% so far this year. U.S. gold futures for December delivery gained 0.9% to $3,546.80. ... Spot gold prices rose 27% in 2024, and broke the $3,000 per ounce level for the first time in March ...
More.
PM Update per Reuters:
... Spot gold was up 1.5% at $3,529.01 per ounce as of 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), after climbing as high as $3,529.93. Bullion has gained 34.5% this year. ...
... Spot silver rose 1.6% to $40.31 per ounce, the highest since September 2011. ...
More.
Trump sees off the free-market capitalism that enriched America
... In short, the extent of presidential control of the economy has not been seen since the end of the Second World War. Trump has added to his influence over macroeconomic policy by levying tariffs, another name for taxes. He is in the process of gaining control of monetary policy by packing the Fed board and firing an existing board member for alleged mortgage fraud, no trial necessary.
Fed independence, done and dusted, control of the macroeconomy complete, he is turning his attention to the independent players that make up the microeconomic economy. With sycophants in seats once occupied by powerful advisers and the opposition Democrats in disarray, effective resistance to Trump’s power push is negligible. ...
Now, as president, he is favouring visitors with baseball caps emblazoned “Trump in 2028”.
