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

U.S. economy is not done with trade war chaos yet

Interesting comments by Jamie Dimon on Quartz. “JPMorgan Chase CEO warns the U.S. economy is not done with trade war chaos yet.” Who would have thought such would not be true? Our president is a master at chaos. Chaos is his trademark. And the trade war chaos? First tariffs, then no tariffs. Its 10 percent, […]

Jobless Claims

Jobless claims continue to reflect slowly expanding economy  – by New Deal democrat I dealt with the March CPI report yesterday; I will update jobless claims today. On a weekly basis, initial claims rose 4,000 to 223,000. The four week moving average also was at 223,000, unchanged from last week. And with the typical one week […]

Musk’s big blooper? His claim of millions of dead people receiving Social Security checks

Elon Musk wants to make seniors on Social Security suffer Smears, Sadism, and Social Security, Paul Krugman We often think of Social Security as a retirement program, which it is. Most Social Security beneficiaries achieve that status simply by reaching retirement age. The program also helps Americans with disabilities preventing them from working or limit […]

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”

April 9, 2025 D.J. Trump Who was “on the take” as Trump implemented the tariffs and then delayed the tariffs and announced it was a great time to buy. ‘What Billionaire Just Got Richer?’: Trump Tariff Pause Sparks Insider Trading Suspicions, Common Dreams The timing of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Wednesday social media post declaring that “this […]

March CPI

This is the report we have been waiting for . . .  – by New Deal democrat In March, with the exception of the usual problem child of shelter, almost every other component of consumer prices was tame – except for meat and eggs. And even shelter continued to decelerate. If Jerome Powell hadn’t tied […]

“Well Here’s Another Nice Mess You Got Us Into”

I guess threatening China did not work out as well as Trump planned it to be. China walked away from the US, starting with liquefied natural gas (LNG). China has just announced a complete halt on all liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States. A decision made abruptly with no prior indication, no […]

April 9, 2025 (Wednesday)

Subscribe to Prof. Heather’s Letters from an American. It was the first site in which I did so. There is a parallel to what was taking place after the Civil War and what is taking place today. Letters from An American On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia […]

Where we are

So Trump announced yuuge “permanent” tariffs and the stock market indices all tanked. Then Trump backpedaled on all the big tariffs except on China. Why the Trump flip-flop? Here’s Josh Marshall over at TPM: “Every sign is that it was not about the equities markets but rather the bond market, where the demand for U.S. […]

One More Con on Working People

Herr Trump, “If you are going to do it, then do it.” Quit threatening us with tariffs on the supply base that supplies us with goods. You are not going to pay for it. The government will not subsidize us. There has been nothing accomplished by all of this except for embarrassment. Do you know […]