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

Federal Criminal Cases Against Trump Dropped for Now

Special counsel Jack Smith moves to drop both federal criminal cases against Trump, POLITICO U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan quickly granted the motion to dismiss Trump’s Washington D.C. case, in which he was charged with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. A similar motion in the Florida case, in which Trump was charged with hoarding […]

Crypto’s $245 million campaign finance operation filled airwaves with ads

Other groups interested in who wins the election as well as SEnate races, etc, Crypto’s $245 million campaign finance operation filled airwaves with ads not about crypto, CNBC In Nevada’s 4th Congressional District, a crypto PAC spent nearly $2 million on ads this cycle to support the reelection of Steven Horsford, a Democratic congressman who’s […]

The Reason Dems Lost this Election? Layoffs and Prices.

I believe it is more than just GM sticking it to Labor. Increasing food prices. Each major automotive company laid off thousands. Some examples of sticking to the population. Eggs in particular saw an increase. Packaging was made smaller. Some examples: – Fritos Scoops: “Party Size” bags used to be 18 ounces, but are now 15.5 […]

Extending Trumps 2017 Tax Cuts

Trumps 2017 Tax Break Extension chart and explanation . . . Sources: CBO (for most provisions), *JCT( R&E provision), **CRFB (Interest provision) New estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put a price tag of nearly $5 trillion on extending all the Trump-GOP tax law, which is mostly scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. That is more […]

Being atypical is “not representative of a type, group, or class”

Dean Baker: “Story telling attracts attention and sells newspapers.” I was reading at another site which was making the argument of Medicare Advantage plans being less costly than Traditional Medicare. It cites a truism that Medicare Advantage offers Part D and Supplemental in its package while Traditional Medicare does not. That is true. However, Medicare […]

The Appointments

Why The Gaetz Defeat Really Matters The first step of defiance is the hardest. Senate Republicans took it. William Kristol and Andrew Egger Earlier this week, we reported on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2020 dalliance with the “plandemic” conspiracy theory. Turns out that dalliance goes deeper than we previously knew. The social media account Patriot […]

Hourly Wage Labor Benefited more, 2020 to 2023 than Salaried

An interesting phenomenon occurred from 2020 – 2023. Hourly wage labor experienced increasing wages during the pandemic. A recent NBER report by David Autor, Arindrajit Dube, and Annie McGrew susply the data creating a foundation for the Labor v Salary words. To display I provided an additional graph besides the one shown by The Bulwark’s […]

Undocumented labor: solutions, not scapegoating

Trump has promised to deport >10 million undocumented people living in the US. He justifies this by saying they are dangerous criminals. In fact, immigrants commit crimes at a *lower* rate than US citizens. He has announced his intention to deploy US troops in US streets to capture and detain people who are claimed to […]