Early this morning I stepped outside into the thirty-degree weather we are experiencing in the Arizona desert. My across-the-street US Citizen Mexican neighbor was loading up his pickup truck to go do some landscaping work. His is one of the few pickup trucks I have seen with the backend box filled with the essentials needed […]
A Bit of Paul Krugman “Trump, Energy and MAGA Brain” “So what’s going on with the proclamation that American energy production, which is one of our economic strong points, is in crisis? Partly it’s a cynical payoff to the oil industry, which more or less openly made a deal to give Trump $1 billion in return for […]
Jobless claims: seasonality and neutrality continue – by New Deal democrat The week’s first meaningful data is jobless claims. These have been trending higher YoY, but with lots of seasonal noise. And that trend continued this week. Initial claims increased 6,000 to 223,000. The four-week moving average (especially more important right now to filter out […]
More on How the Republicans will have to cut in order to keep the TCJA. Perspective: “Nearly 60% of mandatory spending is for Medicare and Social Security,” noted one expert. “If they don’t touch those, they’d have to cut Medicaid to the bone.” Call for $2.5 Trillion in Cuts Proves GOP Wants to ‘Steal Our […]
What is Necessary for Republicans to Extend 2017 Tax Cuts? The tax cuts in the 2017 TCJA were supposed to pay for itself in stimulation of the economy. The TCJA was passed using the Reconciliation Act. It never did pay for itself. So now Republicans are working on cuts to social programs to keep the […]
The former German Democratic Republic (“East Germany”) was a police state in which neighbors spied on neighbors and family members spied on one another. If you were named by a friend or colleague as a potential subversive, the Stasi—the secret police—would arrest you and you could be imprisoned for years on trumped-up charges. After your […]
Even after all of the knowledge we have gained over the years, people still do silly things. Then they wonder why the issues by authorities about their actions. Bringing your loaded weapons (guns) to the airport even if it is in a suitcase. One example: Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport was ranked fourth in the nation for […]
ACA Marketplace Reflections on Retention and Year-round Enrollment – by Andrew Sprung xpostfactoid Writing about the ACA marketplace at this point has an elegiac feel (as does writing about almost any not-depraved or degraded aspect of American life). As of 2026, coverage is likely to be far less affordable, out of pocket costs will rise […]
– by New Deal democrat I don’t normally discuss movements in the stock and bond markets, but occasionally there are important paradigm shifts that can tell us a lot about the economy, and the last few months have been one of those times. The Federal Reserve began to cut interest rates on September 18th. What […]
– by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse Day One of Trump 2.0 was full of shock and awful, precisely what we had every reason to expect. In classic fashion, there was so much, and it was so all over the board that it was hard to focus on any one thing. I wrote to you about […]