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

International Factor Income in 2020

by Joseph Joyce International Factor Income in 2020 The sharp contraction in economic activity in the first half of 2020 due to the COVID pandemic was followed by a slow and uneven recovery in the second half of the year. The decline slowed global trade and capital flows, although not as much as initially expected. The economc slowdown […]

Larry Summers Doubles Down On His Inflation Prediction

Larry Summers Doubles Down On His Inflation Prediction  But somehow becomes vaguer about exactly how this is going to happen and show up, but he wants the Fed to stop it in its track, goshdarnit.  This is in a column appearing in the Washington Post, May 25, “The inflation risk is real.” Well, he does […]

Wuhan Readings from the Fauci Files

I would not want you guys to fall behind in the conspiracy readings. I was reading this stuff April 2020. The news caught up in 2021. “Dr. Fauci Backed Controversial Wuhan Lab with U.S. Dollars for Risky Coronavirus Research,” Newsweek “Under Political Pressure, NIH Blacklists Wuhan Virology Lab,” American Institute of Physics “Why US outsourced […]

Why does McConnell favor a criminal investigation into the events of January 6th?

Josh Marshall nails it (paywalled, but here’s part of his argument): Published reports suggest – and it is no surprise that this is the case – that the DOJ investigations are not looking deeply into the causes of the January 6th insurrection, causes which are inherently political and tied to numerous public officials and electoral politics. They’re […]

The Uninsured and Free Healthcare Insurance

Eighteen million uninsured Americans are eligible for free or subsidized health insurance. Kaiser Family Foundation estimates, 12.5 million of the uninsured are eligible for free coverage which includes 3.4 million for whom “free” means high-deductible bronze coverage. More than likely, half of the uninsured could get “platinum-equivalent” silver healthcare insurance coverage for a premium amounting to no […]

April’s new housing construction and existing home sales

Commenter and blogger RJS at Market Watch 666 Just two widely watched reports were released this week: the April report on New Residential Construction from the Census Bureau and the Existing Home Sales Report for April from the National Association of Realtors…in addition to those, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary for […]

Coronavirus dashboard for May 24: 3 weeks to “0” new cases?

Coronavirus dashboard for May 24: 3 weeks to 0 new cases? No, that won’t happen. But, even so, that is the current trajectory. Let’s start with the overview:Total *confirmed* cases: 33,117,737Total deaths: 589,893 Note that there are many more cases that we don’t know about because the people were never tested. Since about half of […]