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

No Benefit to Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan

There are no Benefits to Trump’s “Great Healthcare Plan” – Public Citizen Public Citizen Health Care Policy Advocate Eagan Kemp issued the following statement: “Trump’s Great Healthcare Plan is impressive only in the fact that it isn’t great, would not substantively improve healthcare. It is not even detailed enough to be considered a plan. “Trump and his […]

Mark Carney speaks to the World and Canada

“Leaders realize they will not be able to ‘manage’ Trump for the remainder of his term. Reckoning with the fact that the systems of international order that the US helped craft are crumbling as a result” of his controlling personality. “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney,” Davos Switzerland The full text of a speech by the […]

Paying for Social Security Redux

A rerun of a S.S. commentary by Dale Coberly. “HOW TO PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY” was written by Dale Coberly and posted by Dan Crawford on Angry Bear September 9, 2010. Of course, Dan died as well as Bruce Webb, Dale retired from Angry Bear after doing years of excellent commentary, I have not talked […]

US has Largely Turned into a Banana Republic in Political and Economic terms

“Record low labor share: corporate profits are at their most extreme levels ever compared with nonsupervisory payrolls,”  – by New Deal democrat An I’ve read a few takes in the past week or so about the declining “labor share” of GDP. To cut to the chase, here’s a link to that exact graph:  In case you are […]

Grifting for Gaza

If you want to understand Donald Trump, follow the money. That includes foreign policy. Kidnap the president of Venezuela for the oil. Take over Greenland for the minerals. And Gaza? Certainly not for the Palestinians or Israel. “Countries on Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza will be asked to contribute $1 billion in order […]

A powerful new tailwind behind the economy: the “real” price of gas

 – by New Deal democrat There’s no new data of note today or tomorrow, so in the meantime (aside from observing Martin Luther King’s birthday) let me take a look at a very important, if small piece of economic data: the “real” price of gas. Gas price shocks have been important precipitants of a number of […]

More on Minneapolis

“The Minneapolis Crucible” – Paul Krugman January 15, 2026 Will we forge democracy anew? When Trump won the 2024 election, I feared rightly) our democracy would soon be in great peril. Between gerrymandering, a corrupt Supreme Court, a compliant Republican Party, and a tsunami of political donations from the tech broligarchy, I thought American democracy […]