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

Bearing the Cost of Tariffs

Good explanation on who pays the tariffs imposed upon imports by Trump. Who Bears the Cost of Tariffs? Liberty Street Economics Mary Amiti, Chris Flanagan, Sebastian Heise, and David E. Weinstein The next chart shows how global supply chains shifted in response to the higher tariffs. We plot import shares by country (or region) for […]

Holding the Newly Built and Paid for by Canada Bridge Hostage

How many more times will the fool in Washington D,C, embarrass Americans to the rest of the world??? “Anatomy of Ignorance — and Corruption,” Jack Lessenberry Donald Trump and the Morouns, owners of the Ambassador Bridge (Editor’s Note: If you’ve been reading me regularly, you know I’ve written twice recently about Trump’s outrageous move to prevent […]

Presidents’ Day week jobless claims pose a quandary

– by New Deal democrat Later this morning I’ll discuss yesterday’s positive durable goods orders release, and in that context, I’ll also have more to say about the likely reason why industrial production also improved so much. Tomorrow we’ll get personal income and spending, and new home sales, both from December, as well as the […]

Worried About AI?

J.P. McJefferson talking Artificial Intelligence. “’We’ve been here before.’ Every generation has its technological scare story.” Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash Why Should I Be Worried About AI? J.P. McJefferson Thoughts For many people, the current anxiety about artificial intelligence feels overblown. They say, “We’ve been here before.” Every generation has its technological scare story. In the […]

Global Economy and the United States

Our fearless leader (who never had much to fear in his lifetime) is recasting the economics of this nation more to his liking. There may(?) have been a time year (decades?) ago when doing so would not be much of an issue. This due to the United States economic size and power globally after WWII. […]

Housing short term indicators say “recession;” longer term indicators suggest “recovery” is close

 – by New Deal democrat When I updated this information in September, I wrote that “a puzzling relationship this year has been that the housing data has been classically recessionary for a number of months, and yet the economy has not rolled over.” I concluded that update by noting that while the report was “very much […]

US Healthcare? Paying More for Less

Beating a constant drum here of the Quality and Expense for United Staes healthcare. This short piece by CEPR’s John Schmitt offers excellent and simple graphs presenting the detail of healthcare in the United States versus other countries. Simplistic graphs and numbers for the United States and measured along with other countries. The issue is […]

Short and medium term inflation, interest rates, and the overstretched consumer

The deluge of data resumes tomorrow with housing permits and starts, industrial production, and durable goods orders. In the meantime, let me make a few “big picture” observations of the economy, and in particular, the short and longer term trends in inflation and interest rates. – by New Deal democrat 1. Short term inflation A very […]

Financing Government Debt

The Cost of Financing U.S. Government Debt – By Daniel Bergstresser Econofact The Issue: The share of government spending devoted to paying interest on the United States’ government debt has risen sharply since 2020 and already exceeds what the government spends on defense. The outlook for the burden of the debt over the next decade has […]

Why the US failed in Cuba

This linked article is over 30 years old, but Cuba still has a socialist authoritarian government. After the collapse of the USSR, its primary benefactor. After the death of Fidel Castro and the retirement of Raul Castro. Decades of US boycotts and saber-rattling have failed to elicit regime change. That’s because the US never trusted […]