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

Europe isn’t flying the unfriendly skies of America

It’s not just Tesla that is becoming poison in Europe: “European airlines are freezing their transatlantic growth and pulling back from major U.S. cities like New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago as they redirect flights to Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Caribbean, where bookings are rising and demand is outpacing the American market. Carriers including […]

Tesla tanks in Europe

I wasn’t gonna buy a Tesla before Elon joined the Trump Administration, so his politics weren’t a consideration. Apart from the fact that I wouldn’t pay that much for a car, I’ve never lived in a place where Teslas are green. Before we left St. Louis, ca. 80% of electricity in Missouri came from burning […]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

Trump says he’s using tariffs to re-shore manufacturing from other countries. Setting aside the fact that it takes years to build and operationalize a manufacturing plant, why would anyone bother when he flip-flops every week? This has nothing to do with jobs in America. This is pure market manipulation for speculators. “Donald Trump has announced […]

Libertarianism on drugs

Libertarianism is the political philosophy of middle school boys and arrested development. This is well-illustrated by the bleat that people should just “do your own research.” Look, I made an entire career out of research and was well-compensated for my judgement. But I certainly wouldn’t trust my judgement on which drugs are safe and effective […]

Trump owned by Bush judge

U.S. District Judge John Bates, appointed by G.W. Bush, awarded summary judgment to Jenner & Block, finding President Trump’s executive order against it unlawful, null and void: “This case arises from one of a series of executive orders targeting law firms that, in one way or another, did not bow to the current presidential administration’s […]

RFK Jr. is wasting your tax dollars

Remember when RFK Jr. promised to have an answer to the cause of autism by September 2025? He’s already walking that back: “We will have some studies completed by September, and those studies will mainly be replication studies of studies that have already been done. We’re also deploying new teams of scientists, 15 groups of […]

The Humpty-Dumpty SCOTUS

In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass,” Humpty-Dumpty says, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” Ever since Marbury v Madison, the Supreme Court has used similar logic with the Constitution. Now the Roberts SCOTUS has used this superpower to discover that the Constitution […]

America is not healthy

Between 2022 and 2023, there were 1.5 million excess deaths in the US. These are people who would be alive if the US mortality rate were comparable to other industrialized nations. “The authors agree that further research is needed to fully understand the driving factors behind excess mortality, but suggest looking to other nations for […]

SCOTUS killed the civil service

In its decision in Trump et al. v Wilcox et al., the six right-wing extremists on the Roberts SCOTUS stripped independent federal agencies of their independence. In principle, the next president could restore independence to these agencies, but from now on, such decisions are tenuous at best: “With unitary executive theory, Congress cannot write robust […]

The higher education gospel according to Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg says colleges aren’t preparing students for today’s job market and higher education is in for a “reckoning.” When, exactly, did “billionaire says” become a substitute for facts and evidence? • The unemployment rate for people with less than a high school diploma is 6.2%; • The unemployment rate for people with only a […]