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

Been there, done that

One of the icons of right-wing fairytale economics is the Laffer Curve. It purported to show that if taxes were raised too high, the tax income would fall. Casual inspection revealed that there were no labels on the ordinate or abscissa, so it was impossible to say at what level of taxation “too high” occurred. […]

Repeat home sales and leading apartment rent indexes both point to lower shelter inflation ahead

 – by New Deal democrat This morning’s repeat home sales reports from the FHFA and S&P Case Shiller were not good news for sellers – but very good news for future consumer inflation readings. On a seasonally adjusted basis, in the three month average through May, the Case-Shiller national index (light blue in the graphs below) declined […]

Six Months In Polling

Briefly: Political polling of what the population in the United States could be thinking today? I know what I would br thinking of thinking of besides Tr__p’s first six months. Early on, I believe Tr__p was polling lower than other presidents in office for six months. Given the state of the economy as compared to […]

The Worst of Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Be Felt in Rural America

As one commenter elsewhere stated: “Rural America hospitals in red states have been closing at an epidemic rate because the states refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Rural hospitals in blue states generally survive. The red states do not seem to care. Congress has not passed bills to save those red state rural hospitals” […]

Postal Service Changes Have a Disproportionate Impact on Rural Areas

The results of US Postmaster General Louis Dejoy’s efforts to improve US Postal Service in the United States. Steve Hutkins and Mark Jamison have been following USPS issues for years and they have been featured on Angry Bear going back to 2016. This particular piece has been taken from Steve Hutkins site: “Save the Post […]

The future of journalism

Jonathan Last has an excellent piece at The Bulwark on the clusterf*** that is the Bezos WaPo and what it says about the business model of journalism in America. “The internet revolution was about lowering to zero the marginal cost of distributing content. The AI revolution is about lowering to zero the marginal cost of […]

New home sales continue rangebound, prices continue to decline, inventory continues to rise

 – by New Deal democrat This morning’s report on new home sales for June indicated that sales continue to be rangebound, YoY prices continue to decline, and inventory of homes for sale continue to rise. This complicates the story of rebalancing between new and existing homes. To recapitulate, while new home sales are the most leading measure […]

Trump wants to end capital gains tax on home sales

Recently, Trump said he was “thinking about” ending capital gains taxes on home sales. Who benefits? “The biggest beneficiaries of such a change will likely be longtime homeowners in the country’s more expensive housing markets. “Removing or increasing the capital gains limit — currently $250,000 for single homeowners or $500,000 for married couples — on […]