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

Bannon’s latest fever dream

I see where Mussolini wannabe Steve Bannon has been asserting that ICE should swarm election polling places, ostensibly to prevent non-citizens from voting. “During Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon outlined his vision, which, as I alluded to above, should not necessarily be taken as literal White House policy. But it mirrors concerns […]

Medicaid and ACA Healthcare Cuts

Briefly, we have not gotten to the place where the impact of healthcare insurance cuts are going to occur. I suspect the impact will be devastating to many US citizens. July 2025, Republicans led by Trump passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, otherwise known as the budget reconciliation bill. The law, H.R. 1, has […]

January ADP private employment and ISM services reports show increasing stagflation in a weakly growing economy

– by New Deal democrat [Administrative note: the good news is, graphs are back! The bad news is, it is extremely glitchy and energy consuming, so my fingers are still crossed. Basically it boils down to Apple and Google don’t want to interact with one another, and have to be repeatedly dragged, kicking and screaming, into […]

February 3, 2026

More on the Trump administration’s effort to block immigrants from residing in the United States. In this instance, the Trump administration’s Homeland Security Secretary attempts to terminate the temporary protected status of immigrants living legally in the United States. The effort to do so is not gradual. It is an immediate termination of their legal […]

Factors Contributing to U.S. Healthcare Spend

Briefly, just a quick and simple look as what contributes to total US healthcare spending. This is part of a much larger report: “How Has U.S. Health Care Spending Changed Over Time?” I find this part of the report to be interesting. But then, I was a consultant who was looking at throughput analysis. Very […]

Lies, Statistics, and Republican talking points about the ACA

Making the ACA marketplace plans a factor in economic issues is false as Andrew Sprung points out. The costs for marketplace ACA plans will experience similar inflation the same as employer plans. That is unless insurance companies jump on the bandwagon claiming the ACA plans are more expensive. This report is from mid-December. I would […]

The State of Freight is Mainly Recessionary

– by New Deal democrat This morning, we were supposed to get an actual, on-time JOLTS report for December. But with Pastor Mike Johnson having done what he does best, i.e., keeping the House of Representatives out of session while critical deadlines pass, the BLS announced yesterday that several reports, including both Friday’s jobs report for […]

When “tariffs work,” they work at a cost

One story that drew attention last week was the sharp divergence between US aluminum prices and prices elsewhere in the world. The US premium passed $1 per pound for the first time ever, reflecting the higher costs US aluminum users now face relative to their foreign counterparts.   Some commentators characterized the development as a sign that tariffs are working, pointing to announcements that the US may see its first new aluminum smelting plant since 1980.  In fact, what is playing […]

Automotive Manufacturing in Mexico

Since I worked in Mexico for about 26 weeks, I learned quite a bit about what was going on in automotive manufacturing. Some things to understand. The pay is less in Mexico. However, there are benefits for Labor which are covered by government programs.1 “Employee Benefits in Mexico: All You Need To Know.” It is […]

TACO comes to Harvard*

Trump quietly chickened out on his effort to extort $200 million from Harvard University. “Harvard has been the top target in Trump’s sweeping campaign to exert more control over higher education. Hard-liners in his administration had wanted Harvard to write a check to the U.S. Treasury as part of a deal to address claims that […]