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

Is the “second great age of globalization” about to end?

This comes by way of New Deal Democrat who was doing some research and ran across a not so recent Krugman article via the late Economist’s View blog. Krugman’s prescient words of things to come? Hat tip to New Deal democrat and a thank you for sending this to me. “The Great Illusion” Paul Krugman, […]

Bad Mouthing the Holders of Student Loans

Tough Guy, senator Mitch McConnell making political hay over President Joe Biden extending a student loan moratorium for a few more months. The mistake Joe is making or has made is not deciding what to do. It is getting late in the game of politics. If your mind is tired of all these politics, you […]

March consumer inflation part 1: real wages decline sharply

March consumer inflation part 1: real wages decline sharply The March consumer inflation report was particularly important, and particularly bad. So much so that I am going to divide my comments into two separate posts. First, the news on real wages was terrible. While nominally nonsupervisory wages rose 0.4% in March, since inflation rose 1.2%, […]

House prices vs. mortgage payments

Housing affordability update: prices vs. mortgage payments; and ramifications for the economy No economic news today (Monday 4/11), and most States didn’t report new COVID cases over the weekend, so let’s take a look at something else; namely, housing affordability, which I’ve been meaning to update for several weeks. The first graph below compares 4 measures […]

Slower Mail Has Become A Fact of Life

People keep asking about when will Biden fire trump appointee Louis DeJoy? President Biden can not fire Dejoy. Federal law prevents the president from terminating the postmaster general under any circumstances. The nine-member board of governors nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate has the power to do so. Only five members of […]

“Why is the press rooting against Biden?,”

Is there an honest newspaper, magazine, etc. that people will read? People do not read any more. They will listen to some pundit on TV telling them how bad they have it. No gasoline lines to wait in, so you can’t complaint about that. Your drive-in maybe took 20 minutes to get that burger, you […]

US natural gas prices hit 13 year high

RJS, Focus on Fracking, Summary; US natural gas prices hit 13 year high on falling production, falling inventories Oil prices ended the week lower for the fourth time out of the last five weeks, as the IEA countries joined the US in an unprecedented release of emergency oil reserves . . . after falling 12.8% […]

Meanwhile in Texas: Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Losses

Under the guise of “protecting” citizens, the Texas legislature, instead of having the gas companies eat their losses from Winter Storm Uri last year, have floated a $3.4 billion bond package to have the taxpayers fund it. The sales pitch is that the gas companies, three large and a smattering of smaller operators get made […]