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

No, F*ckwads, It IS illegal

The least trustworthy name in news, buried in the 13th graf: Democratic lawmakers have argued it would be illegal for Trump to unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without consulting Congress. This is not a question of whether something is blue-green, aqua, or cyan. This is a matter of fact. You might think a news organization […]

Yglesias on Biden

Matt Yglesias has a critical piece up on Biden.  I am largely in agreement with Yglesias’ take, although I tend to see his failings as due to longstanding character traits, while Yglesias puts more emphasis on Biden’s age.  A couple of snippets (the whole thing is worth reading, but not sure if it is public): […]

Nevermind

“The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded a memo from the Office of Management and Budget pausing federal assistance grants, according to reports from NBC News and The Washington Post. “The memo caused a political uproar and confusion among recipients of federal grants, and it had seemingly set the stage for a constitutional showdown.” I don’t […]

What’s the matter with Germany?

I see where Elon “Sieg Heil” Musk attended a AfG neo-Nazi party rally. In these times when authoritarianism is in ascendency throughout the world, I wonder whether Germany will be the next to succumb to right-wing extremism. I don’t have the resources to do my own polling, but I have an American friend who has […]

Shareholders agree with Corporate’s Recent Efforts

A large number of stockholders are supporting Costco’s most recent efforts. Costco shareholders on Thursday soundly rejected a conservative think tank’s proposal requesting a report on the risks of maintaining diversity and inclusion initiatives, even as other companies back down. Costco said that an “overwhelming margin” of 98% of shares voted against the measure, according to […]

Estimates of All People Experiencing Homelessness in the United States

A not-so-short report made shorter by me on homelessness during the pandemic. It is not a terrible read. Plenty of charts and graphs to help explain the words. Dive into it, it is pretty good. The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR to Congress) Part 1: Point-In-Time Estimates of Homelessness, December 2024 National Estimates of […]

Jobless Claims Trending Higher

Jobless claims: seasonality and neutrality continue  – by New Deal democrat The week’s first meaningful data is jobless claims. These have been trending higher YoY, but with lots of seasonal noise. And that trend continued this week. Initial claims increased 6,000 to 223,000. The four-week moving average (especially more important right now to filter out […]

New Administration and the return to an Inflationary Era

 – by New Deal democrat I don’t normally discuss movements in the stock and bond markets, but occasionally there are important paradigm shifts that can tell us a lot about the economy, and the last few months have been one of those times. The Federal Reserve began to cut interest rates on September 18th. What […]