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

Short-Changing Programs for Children

This piece from the Urban Institute’s Kids’ Share discusses how cuts to federal programs will have a negative impact on all children benefiting from federal programs. That is a given. However it will be a much larger impact than thought. Such programs make up a smaller percentage of the Federal Government spend. There is little […]

Special Day Today, One Which May Go Uncelebrated for Various Reasons

When I say uncelebrated, it could be result of various unpreventable causes. Mother’s Day is a congressionally established holiday to celebrate Mothers. The nation does honor mothers the second Sunday of each May. In AZ, we are the unrelated grandparents to a Mexican family living across the street from us. While their mom is in […]

April jobs report: reversals in 2025 (?) trends give rise to the second positive report in a row

 – by New Deal democrat My current Big Theme is that the AI Boom (or possibly bubble) is counterbalancing a stagnant or even shallowly recessionary rest of the economy. (I have to ask NDd whether he meant 2026). This was reflected in what has happened in the past few months. The initial jobs report for February was […]

Oil Shorts – Insider Trading

Sources are CNBC, Financial Times, BBC, Reuters Paul Krugmam (subscriber) gives a lengthy review of what took place at his substack Paul Krugman. I am not going to put his dialogue up. However, he says; “Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense.” I can not imagine how they are pulling this off. Isn’t […]

MAGA means ‘immiserate workers’

This is what the MAGA GOP supports: “Workers are earning record low wages and other compensation compared to their labor output, according to the BLS productivity and costs report published Thursday. Called the “labor share,” this indicator essentially measures how much of the nation’s economic earnings is used to pay wages and other worker benefits. […]

February and March construction spending show two leading sectors in decline; only AI spending holding up the economy

 – by New Deal democrat Tomorrow, Angy Bear will have New Deal democrat’s April jobs report up. I believe you will find it somewhat different than what others are posting. ~~~~ It has become increasingly likely that the Boom (or maybe Bubble) in spending on the construction and operation of AI data centers may be […]

Jobless claims, the most positive data of all, continues to augur for lower unemployment

 – by New Deal democrat The most positive metric in all of economic metric-dom continues to be very positive. Initial jobless claims rose 10,000 to 200,000 last week, still among the lowest readings over the entire past 50+ years. The four week moving average declined -4,250 to 203,250, also among the lowest in the past […]

Do management consultants save non-profit hospitals money?

A typical administrative response to financial difficulty in large organizations is to hire consultants. The theory is that the expertise of consultants will uncover efficiencies that will (a) relieve the difficulties and (b) repay the investment in the consultants. So how’s that working out for American nonprofit hospitals, many of which struggling and threatened with […]

The positive, noisy monthly March new home sales report masks underlying trend weakness

– by New Deal democrat New home sales, which were finally updated yesterday for March (and so still are about three weeks behind their regular schedule now 6 months after the end of the government shutdown!) are perhaps the most leading of all indicators for housing, itself a long leading indicator. In fact, they are […]