– by Joyce Vance @ Civil Discourse The stakes are high, even though the Supreme Court won’t be deciding, at least not yet, whether Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship is constitutional. Tomorrow (written on May 14), the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the Birthright Citizenship Case, Trump v. Casa, Inc. We’re here because Donald […]

Jobless claims: more of the same  – by New Deal democrat After a long data drought, there are many releases today. I’ll start with jobless claims. Initial claims were unchanged at 229,000, while the four week moving average rose 2,250 to 230,500. With the typical one week delay, continuing claims rose 9,000 to 1.881 million: […]

Port Optimizer – Control Tower Wabtec Corporation Shipping on the way to Los Angeles – Long Beach Docks. Container ships As you can see, there is a scheduled decrease. This could change dramatically in the next report. Port Optimizer – Control Tower Wabtec

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the Birthright Citizenship Case, Trump v. Casa, Inc. May 15, 2025. Some history and argument . . . The arguments are not new. The willingness of an Administration to act on them are Jonathan H. Adler During the first Trump Administration, some of the President’s supporters urged him to […]

 – by New Deal democrat Now that we have April’s consumer inflation data, let’s update real wages for average American families. In April average hourly wages for nonsupervisory employees increased 0.3%, and aggregate payrolls for nonsupervisory employees increased 0.4%. Since CPI increased 0.2%, in real terms wages (light blue) increased 0.1% and aggregate payrolls (dark blue) […]

I do not believe there is any policy which will be successful when the environment changes like the direction of the wind due to kneejerk reactions of the presidency. Inflation did decrease by one tenth of one percent. But then is 2.3 or 2.4% really high? What has had a greater impact on the economy […]

I was a subject in the Moderna Phase III trial for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. It was a placebo-controlled trial: of the 30,000 people enrolled, half received the vaccine and half got the saline control. I ended up breaking the blind by having myself tested independently. I was positive for spike protein antibody, which was […]

Well, he’s Secretary of the Treasury under Trump. But what about the man, not the title? “Bessent, according to an interview in the Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015, never imagined he’d be able to get married as a gay man, and have children via surrogacy. It’s a comment that is quite jarring considering that, a […]

Which of Piketty’s “Rich Get Richer” Theories Matters More? – by Steve Roth Wealth Economics For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. —Matthew 25:29, Revised Standard Version Steve Randy Waldman reminded me recently of this […]

 – by New Deal democrat Last month, I wrote that the March CPI report was the one we had been waiting for for the past three years. April’s was the second one in a row. To cut to the chase, there were no major components besides shelter which qualified as “problem children,” i.e., sectors with 4.0% […]