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

A note on Arctic sea ice

Figure 1 Via mashable: Alaska’s exceptional summer continues. The most rapidly changing state in the U.S. has no sea ice within some 150 miles of its shores, according to high-resolution sea ice analysis from the National Weather Service. The big picture is clear: After an Arctic summer with well above-average temperatures, warmer seas, and a historic July heat wave, sea […]

Does O’Rourke Have The Trade Strategy For Dems Against Trump?

Does O’Rourke Have The Trade Strategy For Dems Against Trump? I have been posting here periodically on how it seems that the Dems do not seem to have a strong or well-defined position about Trump’s trade wars that seem politically effective or even coherent.  The few candidates who have made noise about essentially returning to […]

The Hurricane/Picture of Dorian Gray: A Perfect Moral Storm in Three Texts

The Hurricane/Picture of Dorian Gray: A Perfect Moral Storm in Three Texts Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital: The temporal aspect is particularly striking,’ writes philosopher Stephen Gardiner, who has done perhaps more than anyone to foreground it, in A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change: it catches us in a bind. Given that global warming […]

Why is current economic growth called strong?

As of the second quarter the year over year percent change in real GDP is 2.3%.  Virtually everyone refers to this as strong. Why?  By historic standards 2.3% real GDP growth is subpar. It is below the long term growth rate of the economy using virtually any widely accepted estimate of trend or potential growth. […]

Labor Day

I was doing my usual reading in the internet world and ran across this comment to another commenter who claimed Labor Day is a made up holiday. A lot of history in this reply: “‘A made-up holiday that never had a great basis for its existence?’ How about the Ludlow Massacre where 57 miners were […]

My Extreme Opinions.

Here is an especially self indulgent post. I think the useful part is this link to a Data For Progress poll showing current US public opinion is way to the left of the inside the beltway Overton Window. Most US adults support proposals which are seen as fringe left in official Washington. The presentation is […]

Weekly indicators for August 26 – 30 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly indicators for August 26 – 30 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha.One of the benefits(?) of the discipline of a mechanical forecasting system is that it can be completely dissonant with what your emotions are telling you.  Right now the discipline of my long/short leading/coincident […]