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

Why Didn’t Biden’s Economy Appear to be Strong?

With this commentary, we are discussing October/November 2024.The widespread belief was Biden’s Economy and it its progress over the last two years was weak. That is just false and yet the news media and Republicans made such claims and many people followed suit in belief. Yes we did have inflation, we did have supply chain […]

Crude Oil Reserves Fall

According to recent reports, as of January 2025, US crude oil inventory is considered to be in a “good shape” with levels slightly below the five-year average. This indicates a comfortable supply situation going into the new year 2025. Recent inventory drops have been less than expected. Analysts are still cautious about potential future market […]

ISM manufacturing index improves in December, signaling near term continued economic expansion

 – by New Deal democrat Unusually this month, the ISM manufacturing index was delayed one day after the first business day of the month. In other words, it was released this morning instead of yesterday. In any event, a refresher that because manufacturing is of diminishing importance to the economy, and was in deep contraction both […]

Science of Predators and Prey

What the Science of Predators and Prey Tells Us About the Morbidly Rich and Working People, Tom Hartmann, The Hartman Report Nature and economics share some fascinating patterns, one of which explains why Donald Trump is about to become president and how the morbidly rich have appropriated over $50 trillion from working class people since the 1980s. […]

More worrisome signs as construction spending, especially for residential construction, declines with negative revisions

 – by New Deal democrat Last month I started by report on construction spending by writing “ Construction spending for October also came in generally positive. On a nominal basis, total construction spending rose 0.4% to a new record, and residential spending rose 1.5%.” Well, you can forget that, because this month was one of those […]

Forgotten Generation of Prosperity Time Period

America’s Forgotten Generation (of Prosperity) – by Paul Krugman Krugman Wonks Out How and why the postwar boom got memory-holed. So the don’t-know-much-about-history gang are at it again, asserting that the Gilded Age was an era of unique prosperity. I wasn’t planning on another post today, but this really needs addressing in a short note. […]

The final jobless claims report of 2024 is good weekly, but the trend indicates substantial weakening

 – by New Deal democrat Welcome to 2025! The data this year starts out with jobless claims for the last week of 2024, which of course is heavily influenced by seasonality. The news was mainly good this week, with claims declining -9,000 to 211,000, the lowest number in over half a year. The four week […]

Immorality of Greed and Its Impact on Healthcare – Opinion Piece

Greed Is Immoral. Health Care Greed Is Abominable. – by Jim Hightower Creators.com America has endured a long panorama of corporate greed — from the East India Trading Company to the Robber Barons, Gordon Gecko Wall Streeters to Elon Musk. But down at the bottom of raw greediness today, you’ll find the insatiable profiteers of […]