Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Academic Ideas to Working Policies Differences in the Public Sector

I do read Dan Zetland’s site the One-Handed Economist from time to time. He does post interesting commentaries which Angry Bear reposts. This happens to be one of the ones I find to be interesting. Soft money versus hard money? What are the differences between either and especially when it comes to physical labor? From […]

More activity, less cancer

“Prolonged, uninterrupted sedentary behavior was associated with a significantly increased likelihood of dying of cancer, a study of more than 90,000 people showed. “Every additional hour of prolonged sedentary behavior per day was linked with a 10% higher hazard of cancer mortality. Replacing an hour of sedentary behavior daily with light physical activity or with […]

June employment report: weakly positive headlines, and important negatives in hours and payrolls

 – by New Deal democrat My Big Theme for the past few months has been that the AI Boom (or possibly bubble) is counterbalancing a stagnant or even shallowly recessionary rest of the economy. After three good reports in a row, the June employment report was very weak, and in some respects even negative. Below […]

Leadership and Justice that Looks the Other Way and Ignores Racism

As I explained multiple times. Turn out was less in 2024 that in 2020. 3 million people did not vote, The same numeric of ~ three million who voted for others did similar in 2024 and it had a larger impact. Turn out was less in 2024 by percentage of eligible voters 59.7% as compared […]

Starting off the second half of 2026 (mainly) positive

– by New Deal democrat [Special programming note: Today we begin the second half of the year. On Friday there will be no data due to the federal holiday. Since I haven’t updated my overall nowcast and forecast for the economy, as well as how average Americans are doing economically, I plan to do so then. […]

Increasing Corporate Funding and Spending for Candidates Leading up to the 2026 Elections

Introduction: Nearly one third of all corporate political spending on elections since the 2010 Citizens United decision has occurred in the current election cycle. This is months before the general election, a new report from Public Citizen. I suspect this is more for Republicans then Democrats. “‘A Disaster for Democracy’: Report Shows Surging Corporate Spending in 2026 Elections,” Common Dreams, […]

The Late Rise of Electric Cars

Some introduction and then explanation. A rather brief take on what is going on with the Electric Car in the United States and why it did not succeed. Think Trump . . . President Trump has ordered the elimination of the EV mandate and termination of federal support for EVs. “Quantifying Trump’s impacts on EV […]