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

Review of “Two paths to prosperity”

I just finished reading “Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China,” 1000-2000 by Avner Greif, Guido Tabellini, and Joel Mokyr. The book, as suggested by the title, is a study of comparative economic history. My reading of economic history is limited to reading biographies of Marx and Keynes. My reading of […]

The “gold standard” QCEW through Q2 suggests little if any employment growth this year

– by New Deal democrat The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) is “the gold standard of US employment measures. It is an actual census of 95%+ of all employers, who must report new employees for purposes like unemployment and disability benefits. Because of this, it is used for the final revisions, a/k/a benchmarks, for monthly […]

ACA Deductibles 2014 -2026

Deductibles in 2026 were planned proved there was ACA healthcare in 2026. It appears; Republicans are disenfranchising millions of citizens as they eliminate the subsidies. Such will make healthcare too expensive for millions of citizens. The deductibles below were pretty expensive. Deductibles in ACA Marketplace Plans, 2014-2026, KFF These chart collections provide key data about […]

Coming for Veteran’s Disability Benefits

In a 2020 “The Atlantic” article, four anonymous sources reported Donald Trump referred to fallen American service members as “losers” and “suckers” during a 2018 trip to France. According to the report, Trump also canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, asking, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” This […]

Sensible Gun Control

It’s the guns. One of the many red herrings tossed out by the anti-vaxxers is that people who got the COVID jab still got COVID. That’s true. I’m one of them. But the promise of the COVID vaccine was never that it would keep you from getting infected. It was that the vaccine would likely […]

Children Without Legal Representation

If you wish to know what takes place when people of Mexico face a judge to determine their fate? Here is a partial story of Lucy and a few children facing and immigration judge in Tucson, AZ. These children do not have legal representation as funding was cut by Tru_p and his administration. This story […]

Consumer inflation went to sleep in October-November, driven mainly by a steep deceleration in shelter price increases

 – by New Deal democrat A truncated version of the CPI was reported for November this morning. Since no data was collected for October, the monthly change in those values was not calculated, the Census Bureau apparently having elected not to publish with the cumulative two month changes since September. Nevertheless, the two month numbers are […]

Dry Sicily

Review: Dry Sicily – The One-Handed Economist The PR people for this documentary asked me if I wanted to screen it, but they wanted to charge a fee (quite reasonable for any documentary, given non-trivial costs). When I said LUC had no funds, they came back with an “offer I couldn’t refuse”: Apparently your work […]