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

The New Economy and the Tariffs and Tax Breaks to Launch It

Since we have a new president who favors Tariffs, we should start talking about how those Tariffs will impact the US Economy and Citizens. The Tax Foundation offers up a brief explanation which should be readily understandable for Angry Bear readers. If Trump is able to pull this off and get it out of Congress, […]

The economics of healthcare is sick in Vermont

My parents retired to rural upstate NY, where they lived happily for 20 years. But naturally, as they aged, their health declined. At one point, my mom had a pulmonary embolism, and landed in a community hospital in Bennington VT, about 30 miles away. She got the care she needed, but when she was later […]

Are There Similarities Between 2008 and 2020?

I was nosey . . . First a Chart. more charts and then the verbiage . . . Thanks to Strategic Exit for giving me a foundation. There are more informational stats at YouGov Survey: “Political Violence and Extremism.” I was curious, YouGov depicts themselves as an international online research data and analytics technology group. […]

No, overregulation isn’t crushing the American free market

Here’s House Speaker Mike Johnson: “We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state. These agencies have been weaponized against the people. It’s crushing the free market; it’s like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors, and we need […]

Elon Musk can’t do arithmetic

Kevin Drum over at jabberwocking.com watched the Trump spectacle over at Madison Square Garden so we didn’t have to. He zeros in on Elon Musk: “Elon used to be smart enough to do simple addition, but he thinks we can cut “at least” $2 trillion from federal spending—which amounted to $6.1 trillion last year, not […]

A housing crisis? Location, location, location

Housing is expensive here in East Providence. It’s even more expensive in Boston, an hour from here. Some folks live in Rhode Island and commute to Boston. When we were house-hunting in the Providence area in the Spring of ’22, the real estate market was white hot. We were out-bid on three offers. Making an […]

Which provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Should Expire in 2025?

The issue of the Tax Cuts expiring will be arriving at everyone’s doorstep come the end of 2025. They do not give an exact date so i will go with EOM December 2025. Does someone making close to or more than $400,000 annually deserve a continuation into 2026 and beyond? Not sure. I think the […]

Trade, Tariffs, Politics and No Economics

A history lesson of what not to do and yet may still come to pass. October 5th, 2024 by Prof. Heather Cox – Richardson Letters from an American More politics rather than economics. Some of it does fit. The concept is political for an upcoming election. William McKinley is having a moment (which I confess […]

Autocracy will bring poverty

From Prof. Timothy Snyder’s substack “Thinking about…” Shared with permission: “Think about the politicians Trump idolizes, Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The first undid a democracy through fake emergencies, the second through persistent constitutional abuse. It is not hard to see why Trump likes them. “Now consider the Russian and Hungarian […]