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

A plan for full privatization of the USPS appears to have lost steam

Long time acquaintance Steve Hutkins had this Washington Post article (taken from the archives) on his site from late March. It is an update at to where the privatization of the USPS status is today. To sum it up? It may be, the USPS is too big to swallow. Save The Post Office, Steve Hutkins […]

March retail sales were all about front-running T—-p’s tariffs

 – by New Deal democrat Normally real retail sales is one of the indicators I treat as most important, because it tells us so much about consumer behavior, which is not only 70% of the economy, but also has a lengthy track record for leading both employment and the coincident indicators for recession. Not this […]

Trump, Just Letting You Know

“‘Trump Tariff’ Surcharges Appearing on Customer Bills,” Watch: Amid escalating U.S. China trade tensions, American companies are adding explicit “Trump tariff” surcharges to bills to offset the impact of tariffs. Trump Changes Mind on Illegal Immigrants: “One of the things I am doing, though, is I’m also making it easier on the farmers and the […]

The state of the short leading indicators: why there’s no “recession watch” – yet

– by New Deal democrat Over the weekend, in my high frequency “Weekly Indicators” post, I wrote that in the past month, the bulk of the short leading indicators had turned from being positive to negative. Which of course raises the question, should I go on recession watch? To help resolve that, I took a […]

Providing Healthcare to Rural Areas and Small Hospitals

Small hospitals and rural hospitals have always had issues in providing healthcare to those citizens utilizing them. Many citizens lack healthcare insurance due to cost which is one factor. Overhead for having equipment to care for parents is costly. Then there is the issue of manpower to care for patients from nurses on up to […]

Wages and Inflation

Are wages keeping up with inflation? – USAFacts AB: According to USAFacts Wage have been keeping up with inflation currently. Some simple graphs and words. Relatively easy read for everyone with the necessary graphs as support to the words. It did not seem like it was occurring. Yes. From February 2024 to February 2025, wages […]

The US bond market sends a warning; has the US crossed an economic Rubicon?

 – by New Deal democrat Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has called T—-p’s tariffs “an act of warfare against the entire world.” Perhaps it is not surprising that in the past week, the entire world has responded. Among other things,  per Eric Michael Garcia, “China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators for April 7 – 11

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. In this time of exogenous shock to the economy caused by the whims of one man, it is especially important to keep laser-focused on the hard data. And the first hard data that will tell you what is happening is the high […]