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

“new research on foreigners bearing the tariff burden”

Commentary by Erica York at the Tax Foundation on the pass-through impact of tariffs on pricing in the United States. The other possibility is companies may they eat it for a short period of time and maybe pass it through later in the time-table. The idea being the United States may later drop the tariff […]

How $4/gallon gas could take the economy from a nearly complete stall into outright recession

– by New Deal democrat So, first some bad news: my tech issue has resurfaced, so only links to graphs rather than graphs themselves, hopefully just for a day or two. Basically, unless I keep a bar up open to the blog page, Google and Apple sever their “handshake,” and I have to start from […]

A Measure of Tax Decreases for the Upper 10% of Households

I pulled this bullet point information from Josh Bivens piece on the Economic Policy Institute: “The Trump administration’s macroeconomic agenda harms affordability and raises inequality,” Economic Policy Institute. Graph showing the difference in return over 40 years versus Trump’s tax break for the wealthy in one year. It is the same return. It is interesting […]

Trade Deficits, Tariffs, and Rare Earths

Having read the part of processing rare earths in China when the United States has a sufficent supply of rare earths to sustain US Processing. It may make sense to process rare earths in the US. The possesses significant rare earth element (REE) deposits estimated to be > than 3.6 million tons. There are major […]

Trump Throws Down his Glove

Trump threatens Iran. I believe a 30-day window of an oil embargo just went out the window. At 8:50 yesterday morning, President Donald J. Trump posted on social media: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our […]

The Shock of Middle East War on Thailand

Looking at the issue from a different country’s perspective. I have worked in Thailand for weeks at a time at several plants the company had near Bangkok and Phitsanulok If you have not been, Thailand is a friendly country. It does have a degree of poverty which will catch your eye in the cities. It […]

“[p]eople are loving what’s happening” and said: “Cuba’s going to fall, too.”

Exactly what we, the people do not want to see coming from our President. I am sure the millions of people who have lost and are losing healthcare are loving it. And Herr Trump with his actions has most certainly had an impact on the nation’s debt. March 5, 2026 Letters from an American Prof. […]

Oil and Politics

With Trump’s attacks on the Middle East (Iran, we can expect higher prices for oil and more than likely lower inventory. Trump has signaled that the war in Iran could last four to five weeks—or go “far longer.” If tensions in the region continue, it could cause major disruptions to global energy markets and trigger widespread inflation. As […]