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

Newscast Discussing Trump and Iran

Kerry told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki on “The Briefing” that the president’s Truth Social posts –– an expletive-laden post on Sunday and a Tuesday threat that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” –– left him “as shocked as I’ve been by anything that I have seen or read by this administration, in the first administration and now in the second.” […]

Healthcare Insurance Costs

Healthcare Insurance for a company is Overhead cost. Overhead costs are expenses supporting a business. They are not directly associated with labor input, to a product, or to a service you sell. I would not blame Labor for the rising role of healthcare costs in Overhead. This is beyond the cost of Labor input. It […]

Microplastics and RFK Jr’s brain

There’s no question that microplastics are ubiquitous our planet. Are they a threat to human health? RFK Jr, who is neither a physician nor a scientist, thinks so. “Reaching for a number to convey the urgency of the problem, he cited research that “reports concentrations [of plastic] in the brain equivalent by mass to roughly […]

Mothers Day

My mom led an extraordinary and full life. The youngest of three, she was raised in Johnstown PA, northern Appalachia. Her dad died when she was a teenager. Her mom, who never finished high school, went to work as a domestic. She was able to attend William and Mary thanks to money provided by an […]

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 […]

disenfranchising Black voters

“Last week in a Senate confirmation hearing, four Trump judicial nominees, one each from Florida and Ohio, and two from Texas, declined to agree with Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons that Trump, having already served two terms in office, was ineligible to be elected to a third term. That’s four people who believe they are qualified to […]

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. […]