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

Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday criticized another member of the high court

Unusual for one SCOTUS judge to criticize another judge openly. Justice Sonia is correct though as Justice Kavanaugh did not take everything into account as to the temporary stops. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday criticized another member of the high court for failing to understand the consequences of an order issued last […]

Big Bird’s Obituary

About two weeks old but still a good read. Trump defunding public TV. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.” “Big Bird’s Obituary: Greatly Exaggerated” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance April 13 With apologies, tonight’s column runs a little longer than […]

Why Democracy?

& Protecting It Under alternative forms of government such as autocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, etc., and various variants thereof, a small minority runs the country, the nation.  In a democracy, the government belongs to the people.   Democracies are inclusive.  The people choose and depose the leaders. It is thus that everyone has a voice in decision-making. […]

US Consumers Are in Trouble

Trump’s Never-ending War and Trump’s Never-ending Tariffs are pushing up Never-ending price increases “Why Consumers are F*cked” Robert Reich Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s admission yesterday that it “could be next year” before gas prices return to below $3-a-gallon is causing trauma in Republican circles because “next year” is after the November 3 midterm elections. Initially Trump said he could […]

Jobless claims: still the most positive datapoint in the entire US economy

 – by New Deal democrat Let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims, recently perhaps the most positive datapoint in the entire economy. And it continued to be so this week. New jobless claims rose 6,000 to 214,000, while the four week moving average rose 750 to 210,750. With the typical one week lag, continuing claims […]

“what Donald Trump does for his friends – the people willing to plot a violent insurrection”

Update on what Trump is doing for the remaining Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. 1500 and counting pardoned by Trump. Even though they were guilty of storming the Capitol. The remainders were offered clemency. “Justice According to Trump” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance The Justice Department has moved to drop the last remaining January 6 insurrection […]

corporate profits – positive. building permits – is negative. real spending per capita – is close to being flat

“Updating the long leading indicators: corporate profits, and housing.”  – by New Deal democrat This week I’m spending some time updating the non-financial long leading indicators. As I wrote on Monday, I haven’t updated these in a while in large part because the chaos coming out of Washington has blindsided much of the economic data. There’s […]

Impact to Asia of the Middle East Oil Shortage

Just some snippets taken from an NYT article opened by the subscriber to other readers. What the NYT article is looking at is the impact to Asia of the Middle East oil stoppage. The shortage being the on-and-off closing of the Straits of Hormuz. Caused by either by Iran or the United States of both […]