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

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for July 10 – 14

Weekly Indicators for July 10 – 14 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Several indicators that had been stubbornly positive throughout the decline in leading metrics as of this past week finally turned either neutral or negative. Much as the dominant punditry at the moment is […]

July 15, 2023 Letters from an American

July 15, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof Heather Cox Richardson [Warning: the 13th paragraph of this piece, beginning “They did,” graphically describes racial violence.] July 16 marks the 160th anniversary of the most destructive riot in U.S. history. On July 13, 1863, certain Democrats in New York City rose up against the Lincoln administration. […]

Biden Administration Taking Action To Limit Junk Healthcare Insurance

About half of this is original and the other half is a rewrite. Just explaining things more than the author. What President Joe Biden is doing is repealing trumps Short Term Healthcare Coverage which today is less than 365 days. This was extended from prior 3-month coverage (maximum 4 months) when Congress failed to repeal […]

America’s Clean Energy Transition Needs Federal Action—Not Rollbacks

What the Roosevelt Institute and GreenBiz are pointing out is the delay in bring Energy, more clean energy online to satisfy the nation’s requirements, reduce pollution, and avoid severe climate change. Both are putting pressure on the government to move these projects along. They are calling for a mobilization of resources to implement the projects […]

We would’ve never been able to see cricket live on television

Basically, a story about big oil selling prosperity to a country by having their cricket team televised on TV and building a new stadium to be completed by 2025. Exxon and their partners were busy telling the story of fossil fuels as the solution to poverty. This story told as more and more Global North […]

The American working class is doing better, thank you very much

The American working class is doing better, thank you very much  – by New Deal democrat With the release of the CPI report earlier this week, I can update several measures of average middle class American income. Real average hourly wages increased 0.2% in June, and are up 1.6% from one year ago: Real aggregate payrolls […]

Libertarianism

I was catching up on the back issues of New Yorker accumulating on the coffee table, and read an article about the rise and decline of libertarianism in the GOP. The idea that anything resembling libertarianism was actually popular in the Republican Party is a joke. Ostensibly, libertarian wants to shrink big government. OK, lets […]

Open Thread July 14, 2023 Labor Costs are an Issue?

Powell: “Labor costs are really the biggest factor in most parts of that sector (service),” Powell said. “We need to see a better alignment of supply and demand in the labor market and see some more softening in labor market conditions so that inflationary pressures in that sector can also begin to subside.” Open Thread […]