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

RFK Jr-founded Antivax Org pushing to Ban mRNA COVID Shots

Red Alert: RFK Jr-founded Antivax Org pushing to Ban mRNA COVID Shots. Articles of impeachment are filed, ACA Signups, Michigander Charles Gaba does the News in healthcare Hoo boy. You knew this was coming. Via Jessica Karins of Inside Health Policy: As public health stakeholders and members of Congress grapple with how to respond to changes in […]

Tariffs on Christmas Decorations Surpass $500 Million

Happy Holidays! In this final update for 2025, we’re going to take a look at how tariffs are burdening everything on and under your Christmas tree, comparing import data from the first nine months of 2024 and 2025.  The cost of decking the halls has gone up by hundreds of millions of dollars, as everything […]

Bidding a Farewell to Sixty Minutes Freedom of the Press

Just a “wow” moment. CBS News caves to Trump’s demands to remove a discovery segment involving people who were deported to El Salvador prison. This comes after legal input from attorneys. Basically, the government just censured public news about what it is doing. Robert Reich: Farewell to “60 Minutes” ~~~~~~~ The nation is caving . […]

Two important employment indicators from November: one says continued expansion, the second recession

  – by New Deal democrat This is going to be a sparse week for data, with the exception of tomorrow’s long-delayed Q3 GDP report, and jobless claims on Wednesday. Sadly, so much of the data is still missing or stale that the best source for up-to-date information is in the regional Fed reports, most […]

International Trade and the U.S.

Explaining the impact of International Trade. Does International Trade Hurt the United States? Econofact In my opinion, International Trade does not hurt the United States. It does expand our economic impact. As the article points out when U.S. exports to the rest of the world are declining, U.S. imports of foreign goods tend to decline […]

Why vote?

Ever since I started voting, I’ve voted in either red states or blue states. I’ve never missed an election. But why bother voting, since I’m outnumbered? Well, for one thing, millions of people have fought and died for the right to vote. I honor their memory by exercising my franchise. Beyond that sentimental reason, though, […]

What Can Democrats Do Now?

What Can Democrats Do Now? J.P. McJefferson Thoughts Democrats need to move on and move on fast. What really scares me is whether Democrats, Independents, and any others who care about democracy can, over the next couple of years, preserve the concept of “Free & Fair Elections,” and pack the 2026 campaigns with credible, charismatic […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for December 15-19, 2025

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Update: All of the trends that we have been seeing for the past several months appear to be becoming more entrenched. That includes the re-normalization of the yield curve on the positive side, and weak withholding tax payments and transportation metrics on […]