Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈

@josephpolitano.bsky.social

4410

Followers

161

Following

823

Posts

Writing a data-driven newsletter about economics @ apricitas.io

Nuance? In this Economy

he/him | bi/pan

Posts Replies Media

Investment is booming in Mexico—nonresidential construction is up 50% due to major public works projects and manufacturing nearshoring Simultaneously, US-bound exports are at record highs as Mexico benefits from more aggressive US industrial policy www.apricitas.io/p/mexicos-in...

Mexico's Investment Boomwww.apricitas.io Major Public Works Projects and Supply-Chain Nearshoring are Driving an Investment Boom in Mexico

NEW JOBS DATA: Non-farm Payrolls: +275k Unemployment Rate: 3.9% (+0.2%) Prime Age (25-54) Employment-Population Ratio: 80.7% (+0.1%) Average Hourly Earnings: +0.1%

Construction is booming in Mexico's south thanks to massive public works projects—including the Tren Maya rail network in the Yucatan, the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco, and port/road/rail improvements along the Tehuantepec Corridor (intended to compete with the Panama Canal)

Construction is booming in Mexico, with real nonresidential fixed investment up dramatically over the last year amidst major public works projects (like the Tren Maya train system in the Yucatan) and the nearshoring of US-focused manufacturing supply chains.

Another month, another record high for US manufacturing construction! Electronics manufacturing set a new record high in the wake of CHIPS Act incentives for semiconductor fabricators, and transportation manufacturing hit the highest level in 7 years amidst IRA EV incentives

Going to become the joker about everyone cheering on the $1B donation to turn Einstein Medical School in the Bronx tuition-free 1/6 students in the Einstein class of 2027 went to Ivy League schools. 1 came from the Bronx This is just another billionaire donation that entrenches social inequality

New annual electricity data shows the US got a record amount of power from clean energy last year! In total, 2023 was —A bad year for wind, which saw its first decline —A good but slower year for solar, which grew 16% —A good year for natural gas, which continues to replace coal

Some signs of life in Germany's beleaguered wind industry—production of turbines, which hit a four-year low at the start of 2023, have recovered slightly and exceeded 450 in Q3.

The US and China are in the midst of a massive, escalating trade war over semiconductors China is importing record amounts of manufacturing equipment in an attempt to build out domestic chip capacity—while DC tries to clamp down with further sanctions www.apricitas.io/p/the-us-chi...

The US-China Chip War is Escalatingwww.apricitas.io China is Buying Record Amounts of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment to Fortify its Chip Industry—While DC Tries to Clamp Down Harder With Sanctions

The US spent a record $195B on the construction of new semiconductor fabs, car plants, and other factories last year! Texas and surrounding states led with $47.9B, while $39.7B was spent in the mountain region, $38.5B in the midwest, and $27B in the south atlantic!

The US closed out the year with record imports of electric vehicles—including new all-time highs for imports of European and South Korean EVs Net imports through the entirety of 2023 were $11.5B, up from only $4.4B in 2022

NEW: CPI Inflation declined to 3.1% year-on-year, growing 0.3% month-on-month Core CPI inflation declined slightly to 3.9% year-on-year, the lowest level since August 2021, growing 0.4% month-on-month

The share of households expecting their financial situation to improve over the next year just hit the highest levels since September 2021 and the second-highest since the start of COVID, from the NY Fed Survey of Consumer Expectations

Every state but one (Delaware) has seen its real GDP increase over the last year! The fastest growers have been Wyoming (+7.3%), North Dakota (6.8%), and Texas (6.5%) while the slowest have been Delaware (-1%), Wisconsin (+0.4%), and Mississippi (+0.6%)

Very cool map of the slow but steady reemergence of nuclear power in Japan post-Fukushima—12 reactors have restarted, 5 have passed a review to restart, 10 are still under review, 3 new ones are under construction, and 8 are planned for construction

The US economy closed out 2023 by once again beating expectations—in each of the last 2 quarters, GDP has grown more than throughout the entirety of 2022. Real income & consumption are accelerating, investment rebounded, and government output recovered www.apricitas.io/p/us-growth-...

US Growth Keeps Beating Expectationswww.apricitas.io The American Economy Closes out 2023 By Posting Another Quarter of Strong GDP Growth

NEW: US Real GDP came in at a 3.3% annualized growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, led by a strong positive contribution from real consumption growth Nominal GDP growth (which is unadjusted for inflation) came in at 4.8% annualized

Oi mate, you got a loicense for that sonnet?

Buildings in North American urban areas are unusually short compared to European and Asian urban areas, and they're also much more sprawly and use up a lot more land

It's bad that electricity providers keep having to ask customers to conserve power in order to avoid blackouts. It's good that when asked, people actually do conserve power. heatmap.news/sparks/askin...

Asking People to Use Less Electricity Worksheatmap.news Or, one reason why we haven’t seen more blackouts this week.

Real median wages (inflation-adjusted using CPI) rose 1.4% in Q4—and are now up 2.5% since pre-pandemic We've hit the highest real wage level outside the early 2020 data (which is distorted by the exclusion of laid-off low-wage workers), though remain below the pre-COVID trend

More good news on inflation—businesses year-ahead unit expectations, one of the most robust ways to measure inflation expectations, dropped to 2.2% this month, the lowest level in three years

Reposted by

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈

Since COVID, Americans have been forming new businesses at record rates—but until recently it's been impossible to tell how much was gig work/side hustles and how much was genuine firm creation The data is now in—and America's new business boom is real www.apricitas.io/p/americas-n...

America's New Business Boomwww.apricitas.io Americans Have Been Forming New Businesses at Record Rates. But is This a Real Startup Boom—or Just The Rise of Gig Work and Side Hustles?

2023 was the first full year with comprehensive telework data from the BLS & Census Bureau's Current Population Survey—10.3% of workers were fully remote and another 9.4% were hybrid The self-employed were most likely to telework, while public-sector workers were least likely

Really liked this graph from today's NYT—highlights just how much progress America has made in decarbonizing electricity via coal-to-gas switching and renewables, but also how little progress America has made in decarbonizing transportation. www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/c...

A boom in wind and solar is helping Texas' grid rapidly decarbonize—10 years ago, only 22% of electricity came from clean sources. By 2019 that share was 32%. By 2025, the Energy Information Administration projects it will be 52%.

Today, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its January Short-Term Energy Outlook—including the first forecasts for 2025 In it, they expect clean energy to make up a record 45% of electricity due to continued growth of solar/wind and a rapid decline in coal🧵

Unintentionally funniest recent trend on Tiktok is Gen Z people going "Gen Alpha can't even READ! All they know is iPad, Fortnite, and Tiktok!" Like you couldn't even turn 25 before railing against "kids today". Please, everyone was saying the same things about you 6 months ago

Since COVID, the Mountain West has been one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the US—and unsurprisingly, Phoenix has been its fastest-growing metro area Yet Seattle has actually been the largest contributor to national GDP growth, adding $44B compared to Pheonix's $37B