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

DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven Decreased year-over-year in June

Bill McBride at Calculated Risk (8/23/2022 02:21:00 PM) had this report on mileage driven for June 2022. I am sure as Bill suggests gasoline prices may have played a role in the decrease. I wonder too if Covid kept people from travelling too? One of the links to the DOT page also shows travel by […]

More modestly good fallout from lower gas prices

July personal income and spending: more modestly good fallout from lower gas prices There was more good fallout from the recent decline in gas prices in today’s July report on personal income and spending. Personal income rose 0.2% for the month nominally, and nominal spending rose 0.1%. But because the relevant measure of inflation, the […]

Price gouging or shortage. Choose one.

Europe is facing far more energy issues than what the US has faced. We moan about increase gasoline prices which still have not reached the height of them in 2008 when inflation is taken into consideration. David touches upon considerations to be taken in determining a solution. “Price gouging or shortage. Choose one.” – The […]

A Progressive Farm Policy From Conservative Texas Politicians?

Something interesting is happening in Texas. Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller’s office has made a hard push on a marketing campaign for a renewed push for the Farm Fresh Network. Including a new website design. To catch you all up, the Farm Fresh Network was an initiative created by the Ag Commissioners office in 2015 that […]

Jobless claims: put the recession on hold! 

Jobless claims: put the recession on hold! (For now) For the last several months, there had been nearly a relentless slow increase in new jobless claims. That trend has broken, at least for now. Initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 243,000. The 4 week average, however, increased by 1,500 to 247,000.  Continuing claims declined […]

PPP Loans forgiven and Students holding Loans can pound sand

All the delays in getting to this point. I certainly was not fooled. Biden has an extensive history of believing students will renege on their loans, when there was no evidence to support his contention early-on. By early, let go back to 1978 (link is provided). I have added other Angry Bear links to build […]

Coronavirus dashboard for August 24: the post BA.5 wave respite

Coronavirus dashboard for August 24: the post BA.5 wave respite In general, things are headed in the right direction for now in the pandemic. BIobot’s latest wastewater update from one week ago shows a 1/3rd decline in COVID particles nationwide. Here’s the regional breakdown: The West, spearheaded by CA, is down 50%, and the South […]

Sources of Interest

Agricultural news is slim, few and far between and usually relegated to only a few places. Mainstream media doesn’t have an audience for hard ag journalism, and ag journalism mostly preaches to the choir. Two great publications that I typically get information from are Successful Farming and AgWeb –. Both have varying degrees of in-depth […]