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

Lonnie Griffith Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

This popped up in my emails today. So why would Lonnie Griffith Bunch III be so special as to have been called out? The Smithsonian said today (that being August 2), it would restore the information about Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit about impeachment, in the National Museum of American History, a division of the Smithsonian. Here’s […]

Tariffs: Money for nothing?

The dollars are rolling in to the federal government coffers from tariffs. And Trump is claiming victory. “Indeed, Trump has routinely cited the tariff revenue as evidence that his trade approach, which has sowed uncertainty and begun to increase prices for consumers, is a win for the United States. Members of his administration have argued […]

Wasting $Billions While Chain Sawing the Government for Efficiency

Taking from “Tracking federal expenditures in real time.” Brookings we are able to see Federal Gov. expenditures over time. In this case, I chose years. The original graph is on the left and was presented by Common Dreams, “DOGE Wasted Tens of Billions.” It is a great graph depiting the differences in administrations. The article […]

Weak and Changing Jobs Report

Simple report. Not feeling well enough to deep dive this topic. I tend to agree with Paul Krugman and others (for that matter). Much of this fluctuation (jobs, etc.) is due to Trump’s creation of a nervous economy. There is no stability. The slightest change impacts the economy. The facts keep changing from time to […]

Distrust, don’t verify

St. Ronnie quoted the Russian proverb doveryai, no proveryai (доверяй, но проверяй) meaning ‘trust, but verify’ in connection with a nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union. Reagan was referring to the posture towards a political adversary. In principle, our government should be an ally, not an adversary. We ought to be able to trust […]

A note on ISM manufacturing and construction spending

 – by New Deal democrat I don’t have time to write a complete report on the ISM manufacturing index for July, and the construction spending report for June, both of which were reported this morning, so I will do that Monday when the ISM services report also comes out. In the meantime, here is this bullet […]

Caligula or Pee-Wee Herman?

Trump isn’t a jobs creator—the jobs reports are down. So what does Trump do? He fires the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. How many jobs will shooting the messenger create? Meanwhile, his threatened tariffs have stocks headed down. Will he fire Wall Street? A fed governor steps down, making room for a Trump appointment and setting […]

A Near-Recession July 2025 Jobs Report

July jobs report: especially with revisions, an awful report that screams near-recession  – by New Deal democrat Let me cut right to the chase in this first sentence: the only reason this employment report was not recessionary is that it did not have a negative number. Aside from that, it was either  flat to awful […]