Post 336: “Truckloads, Tax Loads, and the Working-Class Squeeze”

• PACCAR is one of the leading truck manufacturers in the U.S.
  • A look back.
  • New truck deliveries are down 13.5% from pre-COVID
• J.B. Hunt is one of America’s largest trucking companies and its sales growth has finally nudged into positive territory.
  • And no, supply chain bottlenecks did not cause the inflation of 2022.
• UPS sales growth in the US returns to negative territory.
• But Fedex’s sales accelerate.
• Mortgages in Canada are renewing at much higher rates.
• Inflation has a much greater impact on the working class.
  • And their real earnings are falling.
• Car sales jumped temporarily as buyers rushed to beat the expiring EV tax credit. 
• In Financial Ructions
  • Canada is heading for a budgetary crisis.
    • And total government debt to GDP is over 100%.
  • No, A.I. should not prevent corporate profitability from mean reverting.
• In our book review of Taxes Have Consequences:
  • We see why the US economy soared after the war rather than collapse like many Keynesians predicted it would.
    • Spoiler alert: it was because of less government.
  • And the 1950s was all that it was cracked up to be.
    • High taxation had returned and individuals and corporations spent more of their energy avoiding taxes than growing the economy.