The chutzpah of these people.
They mince the data for five paragraphs and then spring a zinger in the last one.
Total nonfarm was up only 29,000 seasonally adjusted in September, but civilian employment was up 406,000 you see.
Wall Street Journal
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Does Abdul want to be a senator or the mayor of Dearborn?
It's gonna be nothing but "Jews and Arabs, Arabs and Jews" for six straight years with this guy.
What's even dumber than credit card debt?
... Mark Ratchford, a business school professor at Tulane University who studies consumer behavior related to home equity, says that a lot of people are doing the calculation in their head, and they are noting that if the cost of borrowing is that high, they just won’t do it. Ratchford says he is among those now feeling the pain as a consumer.
“I need to remodel my kitchen, but when I look at the price and the interest rates, I can’t afford that. I’ll just wait, that is the whole housing market now,” Ratchford said. “People are skipping cosmetic improvements and only doing the work they need to do.”
The high cost of borrowing has squashed the fixer-upper market too.
“Five to 10 years ago, people would flip houses, they would buy properties, do the work and then sell it for a profit, but that is less of a thing now. People are not buying fixer-uppers. The cost of borrowing and doing upgrades has gotten so high they can’t do it,” Ratchford said.
Even when consumers do have home equity or HELOCs available, they aren’t pouring that money into new cabinets. “If you are using home equity, HELOCs, you are not using it for home improvements, you are using it to cover credit card debt,” Ratchford said. ...
More.
Friday, October 2, 2026
Trump low approval high disapproval records from this morning fall by this evening
Just 38.2% approve.
60.3% disapprove.
Kpler declares Middle East crude oil exports excluding Iran recovered to pre-war levels, at at least 16.5 mbpd in September
The transit mechanisms have changed dramatically as Iran has perpetrated 123 vessel incidents since March 1 to date. Vessels run dark turning off AIS, vessels conduct in-theatre ship-to-ship transfers, U.S. naval forces provide protected escorts, and states increasingly by-pass Strait of Hormuz by using pipelines.
ROFLMAO III: A higher percentage of the foreign born work in Sep 2026 than when Trump was elected in Nov 2024, at the expense of natives
Trump makes America great again for foreign born workers at the expense of native born workers!
Three strikes and you are OUT, Buddy!
Red lines are Nov 2024.
ROFLMAO: Foreign born population is higher in Sep 2026 than when Trump was elected in November 2024!
14th time!
Red line is Nov 2024.
65.0% of people 20-24 years old worked any job in Sep 2026
A lot more of this population worked in the past.
36.2% of people 55 and over worked any job in Sep 2026
Employment for people 55 and over is cyclical, peaking in the spring and the fall as this group tends to head south for the winter to beat the cold and north for the summer to beat the heat.
Employment for this group hit its lowest level outside the pandemic in twenty years in July 2026 with just 35.5% working any job.
80.9% of people 25-54 years old worked any job in Sep 2026
This population is working close to its past potential.
Just 30.4% of teens 16-19 years of age worked any job in Sep 2026
This population needs to be shipped off to the factories and the fields.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Abdul is ahead by 3.4 in the Real Clear Politics average, but the margin of error averages 3.6
Expect polls to narrow and the actual outcome to be close.
VUSUX new NAV low 9/30/26 $7.13 (October 31, 2023 $7.44)
VUSUX per annum return 5-years -7.25%
VWESX per annum return 5-years -4.33% (NAV $6.90 vs. $6.94 October 31, 2023)
Meanwhile, checking in on the 60/40 portfolio . . .
VTSAX per annum return 5-years +12.55%
VBTLX per annum return 5-years -0.65%
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Hurrah for Mark Krikorian, who finally calls attention to the single most effective way to get rid of illegal aliens: systematic nationwide worksite enforcement
Two years too late, Mark.
He puts the illegal alien population in America still at 13.5 million in July.
Here:
... One area where ICE’s deportation efforts have fallen short is at the worksite. Jobs are the primary magnet that draws people to immigrate illegally. And while it’s been illegal since 1986 to employ illegal aliens, there’s never been much enforcement.
While the Trump administration’s immigration policies have in so many respects been a refreshing break from the past, in this area they are not. While there has been more job-related enforcement than under Biden, that’s not saying much.
If the White House’s concern (and the lack of worksite enforcement is a White House decision) is to avoid sensational news footage of illegals scattering during a raid by La Migra, there’s an obvious solution. The worksite is the ideal site for what I call “briefcase enforcement” instead of “body-armor enforcement.” Raids by armed ICE agents will always need to be an option, but less sensational—and perhaps more effective -- would be ICE audits of the payroll records of suspect employers, accompanied by colleagues from the Labor Department and IRS and state agencies. This won’t work as a one-off, but if suspect employers across all regions and industries knew that hiring illegals would result in, at the very least, a paperwork colonoscopy, followed by a notice to fire the illegal workers (if they hadn’t already run off), there’d be a lot more interest in complying with the law. The possibility of fines or criminal prosecution would be an even greater incentive for employers to clean up their payrolls, though current law makes that difficult.
Worksite enforcement would also be an important spur for self-deportation. If you’re an ordinary, non-violent illegal alien and all you hear about is the “worst of the worst” getting deported, you might figure it’s worth keeping your head down and taking a chance that you won’t get caught.
But systematic nationwide worksite enforcement would change that calculation. The likelihood of arrest by ICE would go up, and even more likely would be that your newly vigilant employer would be shocked, shocked to discover that you’re illegal and regretfully have to let you go.
Once jobs in the formal labor market, where most illegals are employed, dry up, the incentives to give up and go home increase significantly. ...
Kpler data shows crude exports from the Persian Gulf recovering to about 80% of pre-war, but not refined products which are still down 81%
The U.S. facilitated transits cost the U.S. taxpayer about half a billion dollars every month.
Oil exports through Strait of Hormuz hit prewar levels, but fuel shipments are constrained
... The world faces a global fuel crisis as supplies from the Middle East are constrained and Ukraine pounds Russian refineries. Refined products shipped through Hormuz are at a seven-day average of 677,000 bpd as of Monday compared to 3.6 million bpd before the war, according to Kpler.
Crude and product shipments together stood at a seven-day average of 14.2 million bpd which is about 80% of the Hormuz prewar baseline of about 17 million bpd, the data showed.
... more than 70% of the crude oil that crossed Hormuz in August switched tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates or Oman, according to Kpler. Shuttle tankers bring oil through Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman. The cargo is then loaded onto another tanker that delivers it to Asia.
This shuttle system is protected by the U.S. military and reduces the risk of exposure to attack from Iran. But it is unclear how long this system can be sustained given that it relies on U.S. military protection.
“It’s very expensive and it’s a huge U.S. military commitment,” Croft said.
And the Gulf states don’t view the “patchwork arrangement” of ship-to-ship transfers and military escorts as an acceptable substitute for Hormuz being open, she said.
Pipelines operated by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also doing a lot of heavy lifting. About 40% of Gulf crude oil now bypasses Hormuz through these pipelines compared to 17% before the war, per Kpler. ...
CNBC has it backwards: The data center bill from Republicans was toothless, but the bill banning stock trading contained a Republican poison pill
Neither party wants a Congressional stock trading ban. Trading on insider information is the main reason they want to be there!
... A second bill, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act, which also includes a controversial voter-identification provision, was defeated on a party-line, 53-47 vote. Both bills needed 60 votes to overcome the Senate filibuster.
... the congressional stock trading bill, passed the House in July on a 232-198 vote, and would prohibit sitting members of Congress from buying individual stocks. But it would not force members to divest their existing portfolios, a sticking point for some Democrats who have advocated a more stringent trading ban.
Republicans also tacked on a controversial voter identification provision to the measure, which Democrats largely oppose.
Schumer similarly criticized the stock trading proposal on Tuesday, calling it a “theatrical farce” and the voter ID provision a “poison pill.”
And Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the Republican proposal was a half measure.
“It’s obviously a sign that they don’t take seriously the issue of insider trading. If you wanted to get a stock ban done, you would put a stock ban on the floor,” Kaine said on Wednesday. ...
Trump's BEA under Howard Lutnick fiddled with the PCE methodology while we were at the beach this summer to get lower inflation in July and August
Fed’s preferred gauge showed core inflation at 3.0% in August, much lighter than expected
... While the annual increases were less than expected, they came as the Bureau of Economic Analysis changed the way it computes several components of the index. The BEA adjusted methodology for how it measures prices for legal services, software and computer accessories and portfolio management.
The revisions lowered the core July PCE level by 0.36 percentage point.
... “Even after major methodological revisions, PCE inflation is still running hot however you cut it,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group. “The economy is running hot, policy remains easy, and the Fed’s challenge is figuring out how much restraint is needed. That’s a tailwind for stocks as we move into Q4.”
... “The PCE Inflation data – the Federal Reserve’s favorite – show no progress in August on inflation,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “And it’s inevitable that September will be higher. Meanwhile, American consumers are feeling the squeeze.” ...
And also today . . .
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reports more than $250 million in income last year
What a cohencidence!
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