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

Soft Landing ?

A soft landing (disinflation without a recession) looks possible.  Also the remaining threat is the FED’s sticking with high interest rates, even though inflation is at a very reasonable level (I personally publicly argued that the inflation target should be 4%) and will almost certainly decline even if unemployment remains low. The change can be […]

Opiate Addiction Treatment

I have long thought that there is a (partially effective) treatment for opiate addiction — suboxone. To review suboxone is a mixture of buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine is a partial opiate receptor agonist (activator) which also blocks other opiates. At least when taken orally, it relieves opiate craving but does not make people high and […]

Labor Day September 5, 1882

by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American Almost one hundred and forty-two years ago, on September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday with a parade. The parade almost didn’t happen: there was no band, and no one wanted to start marching without music. Once the Jewelers […]

UAW files federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk

Who is the bigger scab? In an interview with Musk, Trump appeared to endorse firing striking workers. The United Auto Workers Union has filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the union said Tuesday. In a thread on X, the union said Trump and Musk had illegally attempted to “threaten and […]

Climate adaptation options

by The one-handed economist Humans are not doing enough mitigation to slow — let alone reverse — climate change chaos. Average global temperature is now +1.2C, far above which is on track to exceed the 2015 Paris Agreement’s target of “holding the increase in the global average temperature… increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”  by 2034.* In this 2011 post (“We’re […]

Still no power? Here’s when lights could turn on in Northeast Ohio

“Still no power? Here’s when lights could turn on,” StormTeam2 The lights have gone out in many parts of Ohio. Commenter and sometime writer r.j.s. citing conditions near his home after bad weather passed through. CLEVELAND (WJW) — FirstEnergy is calling storms that hit Northeast Ohio on Tuesday the most impactful to hit The Illuminating […]

What difference did the COVID vaccine and masking make in the US?

The US economy appears to be emerging from the recent recession (pace the Fed interest rate decisions). There’s a general consensus that that recession was largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent supply chain disruptions. What lessons might be learned on how to maximally blunt the impact of future pandemics while minimizing negative economic […]

Politics & Prosecutions

by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse Tonight, the reporting is that Vice President Harris’ choice of running mate is down to Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. Although Shapiro has a somewhat higher public profile because of his work taking on Trump and election deniers in court when he was the state’s attorney […]