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

Initial jobless claims

 – by New Deal democrat I’m on the road today, and won’t have time to update anything until tonight. So here is what to look for in initial and continuing jobless claims. Remember that the most important figure for forecasting purposes is the YoY% change. One year ago, initial claims came in at 221,000, the […]

Kareem Takes on the News

Kareem talks Robert Kennedy Jr. and his ramblings as the Secretary of Health. It is pretty obvious in front of Congress he is not up to the job. Neither is he capable to direct the citizens of the United States. Over the last few years, it was pretty easy to get a Covid vaccination. Just […]

Open Thread with a Topic

Or you can talk about something else. I did this in early August also. As I said before, this used to be a weekly process and sometimes was very successful. As a subscriber. I am posting part of a Paul Krugman commentary from the past. It may interest you. You can always use your own […]

How many immigrants live in the U.S.?

Answering the question as a part of: “Immigrants and the economy,” Economic Policy Institute. Just how many migrants and immigrants are living in the United States? There were 47.8 million migrants and immigrants who resided in the United States as of 2023 (see Figure A), which includes all foreign-born persons of any immigration status and those […]

Keeping Trump honest

A recurring theme in shut-down commentary is that Democrats cannot trust Trump and congressional republicans to keep any deal they make to fund the government. This seems like a valid concern.  Some commentators cite this as one of the main reasons for Democrats to refuse to fund the government.  But unless the Democrats have a […]

Frum: “Can he consolidate power before he loses his aura of inevitability?”

Good question by Frum. Some speculation in this piece by Paul Krugman. Trump is or is becoming unpopular. It comes as no surprise to me Tr_mp is fumbling around and going back and forth in his decision making. People are still hurting except for the upper 10%. The key to this is whether Tr_mp can […]

Tylenol time travel

RFK Jr and Trump have announced that the “cause” of autism is mothers who took acetaminophen during pregnancy. Not only are there no data supporting this, but chronology falsifies this theory. Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler provided one of the earliest documented descriptions of autism-like behavior in 1911. He used the term “autistic” to describe some […]

Convincing Pregnant Women to Avoid Using Acetaminophen

The agency’s head cited the well-known but rarely deployed concept to convince pregnant women to avoid using acetaminophen. Why not do the same for global warming and PFAS chemicals? Merrill Goozner’s (GoozNews) discussion points opposing Kennedy and Trump’s opposition to using Tylenol when pregnant. It is becoming stranger in the US with Trump’s failing awareness […]

Snake oil and the Trump White House

Trump brought the RFK Jr snake oil road show to the White House. “Yesterday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s traveling medicine show made a stop at the White House, where President Trump was the featured barker at an off-the-rails press conference. Taking unscientific aim at vaccines and unsubstantiated links between Tylenol and autism, the […]