Josh Marshall has an interesting piece in TPM on George Washington. It’s the second of two commentaries on Presidents Day. Presidents Day was originally celebrated as George Washington’s Birthday. When the effort to declare Abraham Lincoln’s birthday a national holiday failed, due to opposition from white Southern politicians, Presidents Day replaced Washington’s birthday. In the […]
– by New Deal democrat When I updated this information in September, I wrote that “a puzzling relationship this year has been that the housing data has been classically recessionary for a number of months, and yet the economy has not rolled over.” I concluded that update by noting that while the report was “very much […]
Beating a constant drum here of the Quality and Expense for United Staes healthcare. This short piece by CEPR’s John Schmitt offers excellent and simple graphs presenting the detail of healthcare in the United States versus other countries. Simplistic graphs and numbers for the United States and measured along with other countries. The issue is […]
Two points to this Dan Rather piece (subscriber). President in office should not have things named after them. Gerald Ford declined such. The sitting President Ford vetoed a bill branding things with his name because he believed federal buildings should not be named while he was in office, Neither should Presidents in office add their […]
The deluge of data resumes tomorrow with housing permits and starts, industrial production, and durable goods orders. In the meantime, let me make a few “big picture” observations of the economy, and in particular, the short and longer term trends in inflation and interest rates. – by New Deal democrat 1. Short term inflation A very […]
Could one call this a changing news environment to please political influencers? It sure seems to be swing in that direction. Time will tell . . . “The tragic end of CBS News” Robert Reich Friends, Producer Alicia Hastey departed CBS News Wednesday, saying the work she came to do was “increasingly becoming impossible,” as stories were […]
Review: Ringworld – David Zetland The one-handed economist Sometimes you just want the answer I grabbed this 1970 Sci-Fi novel by Larry Niven based on its recommendation. The book is the first in a series (that I will not continue, given the fact that I am now reading three other series!) on how humans and other aliens […]
The Cost of Financing U.S. Government Debt – By Daniel Bergstresser Econofact The Issue: The share of government spending devoted to paying interest on the United States’ government debt has risen sharply since 2020 and already exceeds what the government spends on defense. The outlook for the burden of the debt over the next decade has […]
This linked article is over 30 years old, but Cuba still has a socialist authoritarian government. After the collapse of the USSR, its primary benefactor. After the death of Fidel Castro and the retirement of Raul Castro. Decades of US boycotts and saber-rattling have failed to elicit regime change. That’s because the US never trusted […]
– by New Deal democrat Today is Presidents’ Day, so there are no official economic data releases; and there will be no significant releases tomorrow either, before a torrent of both timely and delayed data from Wednesday through Friday, including GDP for Q4. In the meantime, because of the January updates for employment and inflation last […]