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

The Government makes a Profit on Defaulted Student Loans

I have known Alan Collinge of Student Loan Justice for multiple years now. He has been prompting some type of relief for those who will never be able to payback these loans or are in default. The information in the chart above is from EOY 2020 and the Federal Student Loan Portfolio, Federal Student Aid, […]

Existing home sales and prices decline further

Existing home sales and prices decline further, BUT . . .  – by New Deal democrat Even though existing home sales make up about 90% of the total market, they have much less economic impact than new home construction. They are best used to confirm trends. In January they continued to confirm that sales have […]

PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT SIGNING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. AUGUST 14,1935

F.D.R.’s statement on signing the Social Security Act reminds us to pay attention to ‘reform’ or schemes to ‘privatize’ PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT SIGNING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. AUGUST 14,1935 Today a hope of many years’ standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to […]

Climate loss, grief and migration

by David Zetland (originally published at The one-handed economist) Climate loss, grief and migration The climate we grew up with is leaving. International action to slow climate chaos is not really working. National action and market innovations are having some useful impacts, but they are far too few on the mitigation side and far too […]

The “exhausted majority”

At Infidel753 blog, author Infidel has a great commentary from February 14th. He discusses an “exhausted majority” making up America which has found the ongoing politics to be unacceptable, having checked out of either side of the battle. Granted, the politics of elections and the thereafter has turned into a mudslinging contest. The news media […]

New USPS Plan, rather than reducing transportations costs, it will drive them up by requiring more routes

The USPS Eagle spins S&DCs to postal employees, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins The cover story of the new issue of the Postal Service’s Eagle Magazine is “Re-Thinking Local Delivery.”  It’s all about the big, new, modern Sorting and Delivery Centers that will replace carrier operations at your local post office. The article has a graphic […]

North Carolina Supreme Court has thrown a lifeline to SCOTUS

AB: Think about it. How does SCOTUS decide on some far-flung theory rejected by the founding fathers. Repubs claim NC high court decision canceling “extreme gerrymander by the state legislature violating the state’s constitution” violated the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT). AB: This was a preposterous contention that state legislatures, acting alone, without executive approval […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators February 13 – 17

Weekly Indicators for February 13 – 17 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. There are two trends percolating under the surface. One trend is the continued slow decaying of growth in the coincident indicators. The other is the slow move towards turning neutral or positive […]