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

Republican’s Deliberately Dangerous Vaccine Messaging

Florida’s Surgeon General Is Sending a Dangerous Message | MedPage Today, Thresia B. Gambon, MD, MBA, MPH March 15, 2022 There is a lot of unclear and purposeful misleading messages coming from politicians, pundits, and the internet. Doctors are also not clear in explaining Covid prevention. The result being the public not understanding whether to be […]

1974 Redux?

1974 Redux?  The stock of Thomas Robert Malthus rises and falls with the real price of food. He was not the inventor of his theory of population, a point that Karl Marx threw at him among other criticisms, with such people as James Anderson and Benjamin Franklin preceding him with pretty much the entiretly of […]

The COVID funding fiasco

At the Atlantic, Ed Yong reminds us that COVID has not disappeared, and that our governing institutions are hardly covering themselves in glory on this issue: This week, Congress nixed $15 billion in coronavirus funding from a $1.5 trillion spending bill, which President Joe Biden then signed on Tuesday. The decision is catastrophic, and as the White House […]

Despite OPEC shortfall, first global oil surplus of 360,000 barrels per day

RJS, Focus on Fracking; Oil prices went on another wild ride, but i’m going to copy what I wrote on the monthly OPEC report here. The oil surplus, albeit small, surprised me. If it was going to happen, it would be during the winter for most of the planet’s driving population. Note this is for […]

First Quarter ’22 Cattle & Ranch Report

Green grass is growing finally down south as some rainfalls are being received east of the Colorado River, not that Colorado River, the other one that moves through Austin, and has very little to do with it’s namesake. Grass growing in the spring brings on the grazing and let’s the ranchers get off the expensive […]

Weekly Indicators for March 14 – 18 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for March 14 – 18 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The economic indicators are coming under pressure from both ends. The long leading indicators are being buffetted by inflation and the Fed, as interest rates generally rise, and the yield curve gets very […]

Really Awful “Rhetoric”

Really Awful “Rhetoric”  “Rhetoric” in quotes because it may not be just that.  I have not been posting much, partly because I had a wedding for daughter, Sasha, last weekend, but also because I am seriously demoralized by the current situation, and every time I think I have something intelligent to say about the economics […]

Russia / Ukraine tweets, logistics, public opinion, sanctions

First, a twitter thread on war reporting (click through if interested): The pictures coming out of Ukraine have played an essential role in rallying Europeans and Americans to aid the Ukrainian cause.  But it is so difficult to keep these emotional pictures from overwhelming our judgment.  Especially for those of us not expert in military […]

Mixed Bag; Crude Oil, SPR, Oil and Product Supply, Distillates, etc.

RJS, Focus on Fracking, Commercial crude supply rise as SPR falls to 19½ year low, total oil + products supply at new 95 month low; exports of distillates at a 20-month high after largest drop in domestic demand in 18 months The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data […]