EconChrisClarke

BLS preliminary estimates have actually increased their accuracy over time. There is always room for improvement and survey responses have decreased. Improved accuracy requires more resources, not less.

YouTube video by Christopher Clarke This Is Bad. Moving Towards Authoritarianism.

Data commissioner firing was motivated by bad news, rather than data quality concerns. 1)Trump already cut BLS budget. 2)Trump disbanded volunteer data advisory committee. 3)Private ADP data also show job growth decline. 4)No non-Trump employed economist has agreed with it.

youtu.be/St78y6PABGU?...

We've solved the long standing European language family tree puzzle. Finnish does not originate in the Ural mountains, but rather much further East near Lake Baikal near Mongolia 4k yrs ago. Why did they move West? Long-distance trade brought about by the bronze revolution.

ASC would also have household income data. But that is a cool graph. Something to think about. The unit of observation makes it a little difficult. Zipcodes have different populations.

Levels matter here as much as rate if change. At least for the beginning of the comparison period. Yes, the ASC can get very detailed. All the way down to census block, I believe. But it will be a 5-yr moving avg.

Census Median Rent from ACS 2023: $1,406
Zillow ZORI (smoothed, monthly, I average to annual) 2023: $1,941.

That's a $540 monthly difference! It could be median vs mean, or other differences in method.

www.zillow.com/research/data/

data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1...

How does the Zillow "typical rent" measure compare to the Census number? Is Zillow data biased hire towards newer contracts? The difference between the Zillow data I've used before and census data can be a $1k at times.

I couldn't quite follow what data you used to make the chart. Zip code data? So, is this zip code specific income and then avg rent price? Is this ACS data?

Johnny Harris Doesn’t Understand Supply and Demand 7/16/2025 Johnny Harris recently claimed that Supply and Demand can’t explain the recent happenings with eggs. While acknowledging the affects of bird flu, he claims the flu wasn’t enou…

Here is a link to sources and spreadsheet.

econchrisclarke.wordpress.com/2025/07/17/j...

YouTube video by Christopher Clarke Johnny Harris Does Not Understand Supply & Demand.

Johnny Harris doesn't understand Supply & Demand. He claims bird flu did not hurt supply enough to explain massive price hikes. But, if demand is very inelastic, the data match the model. I estimate a recent elasticity of 0.17; exactly in line with the research avg of 0.18.

youtu.be/SRMpdq-ifDE?...

Hmmm, how do we square this with price indices showing real wage growth?

JD Vance claims low PPI inflation numbers mean economists don't understand tariffs? Is it true? No. PPI explicitly excluded imports. And the tariff-sensitive domestic goods, such as steel and furniture, are seeing price hikes.

Tariffs are starting to show up on inflation data. Effect is still rather muted. As prices go up in some industries (furniture), consumers pull back in others (airfair) causing those prices to fall. Monetary policy is keeping total demand in check.

Has inequality caused restaurants to struggle? After all, the rich only eat 3 meals a day. Yet, we see growth in new establishments. Worker pay is up. And we now spend more eating out than on groceries. Still, Keynes' insights about inequality leading to less MPC has some merit for recessions.

How does the data show Median Incomes rising faster than the Cost of Living, when housing is way less affordable? Answer: Other things have become relatively cheaper offsetting that. The prices of clothing, furniture, appliances, groceries, recreation have grown less than wages.

GenZ is making more money than the rest of us. Good. We still have a lot of inequality. Bad. Even Hayek cared about relative incomes. Good news: Wage growth for bottom 10% is catching up.

Americans are moving to more disaster prone areas. The greater financial opportunities in coastal areas appear to outweight the risks. But because of government disaster relief, this creates moral hazard. How should we address this? Increases property taxes? A personalized public FEMA premium?

Medicaid work requirements don't increase employment. They should be called "red tape requirements." Their implementation only cuts healthcare for hard-working low-income Americans. Also, the Bill's largest Medicaid cuts are just blanket funding cuts; nothing to do with working

Are Humans particularly violent? We don't initiate violence as much as chimps, but do we finish the job more often. Pre-agricultural violence was less frequent than previously thought. Farming's hierchies and scale brought a whole lot more violence. Recently, we've become more peaceful.

With rising inequality tearing apart the social fabric of America, what institutions will save us? Churches, post offices, libraries? No. You'll never guess.

NY has elected a socialist mayor before: LaGuardia! And he was a Republican. That said, government grocery stores won't fix food retail. Cuz food retail already has low competitive profits.

I've yet to met a hetero couple where the woman takes out the trash? Why? (The question appears so obvious that I'm not aware of any survey data that even asks the gendered difference).

Lol. My bald head shows too much skin.

The United States is nowhere near "full". Growth from native births is set to shrink behind deaths in about a decade. The U.S. population density is tiny. Many Midwestern cities' populations are smaller than 30 yrs ago. We have lots of room.

I think the fact that I had to use the waybackmachine to confirm this and that they wouldn't give her a clear answer over the phone indicates a certain level of "tight lippedness." But hey, whatevs.

YouTube video by Christopher Clarke Tariffs Could Eliminate 7M Jobs - Economist Reacts on CNN International

I woke up early to talk about the economic effects of tariffs w
CNN International 1. UN projects tariffs may lose 7 million jobs. 2. The courts stroke down some tariffs, uncertainty continues. 3. Manufacturing jobs won't return. Higher paying jobs are already here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBVe...

YouTube video by Christopher Clarke Immigrant Students Bad For Harvard? What About Sports?

The NBA and MLB also have over a quarter of players that are foreign born. Why not argue for Harvard to expand capacity rather than limit the country's acquisition of the global talent? "Migration and innovation have gone together since the dawn of human history."

youtu.be/Sjdi2A6S6xw?...

Are tariffs working like the Trump administration has promised? “Not one bit,” according to @econchrisclarke.bsky.social.

More on how the U.S.-China agreement affects your money and the lasting impact of tariffs at the link: open.substack.com/pub/chandeli...

Viral claim that minimum wage used to have the purchasing power of $66 an hour. Nope. It did max out at $11.27 in '68. Today, after looking at state and local MW, I calculate avg MW is now $11.73.

How does an economic good become "elite"? Why do Stradivarius 🎻 sell for millions when an equal quality modern sells for a fraction? Steinway 🎹 can't do it. What is so unique about the Strad? I explore it this quick video.