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

Why I anticipate a blue wave

Infidel’s commentary as taken from his blog Infidel753 Last week I posted on why the country needs a Democratic landslide.  This post is about the reasons why I think it’s most likely there will actually be one.  Those reasons why are, of course, the meat of the matter — anybody can claim to believe something, but the important […]

Economic stress in higher education

You might think universities would be immune to the financial pressures of the non-academic marketplace. You would be wrong. Brandeis University is struggling financially, and recently fired their resident string quartet, the Lydian String Quartet* after 40 years, to save $275,000. Other universities that, unlike Brandeis, have medical schools, are also struggling with their budgets. […]

A Brief on the Economics of Water Usage

This is not the complete report which can be found here: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good. The report questions our present knowledge of water how it is viewed and its usage. I will let the authors explain. The Problem Humanity Has Created Humanity has thrown the global water cycle off balance […]

“I want Americans and families to be able to not just get by, but be able to get ahead.”

And quite frankly, Trump is not interested in Americans and Families unless they are a part of the 1-percenters in Income. To be in the top 1% of earners, you’re looking at an average annual income of $819,324. The top 0.1% of Americans earn an average of $3,312,693. These are same people who benefit the […]

Weekly jobless claims return to near normal

– by New Deal democrat After two weeks of being highly elevated YoY, initial claims returned to a more “normal” range this week, as except for Florida, hurricane disruptions largely disappeared. For the week initial claims declined -15,000 to 227,000. The four week moving average increased 2,000 to 238,500. With the typical one week delay, […]

The economics of Trump II

Trump is promising lots of tariffs if he’s elected. Make no mistake: American consumers pay tariffs, not the exporting country. US consumers will be hit by (a) increased cost of imported goods, and (b) increased cost of domestic goods, as domestic producers raise prices to match imports. Econ 101. Trump is promising to lift taxes […]

The Misinformation About Immigrants in the United States

During the Trump administration (according to the Migration Policy Institute), the Trump administration signed over four hundred executive actions on immigration between January 2017 and July 2020.  These executive action changes limited asylum, banned entry from a list of countries (initially seven, but later expanded to thirteen), sought to deter cross-border immigration from Mexico and […]

Shifting the burden of supporting the country from the wealthy to average Americans

He wanted generals like Hitler’s, a leader he sometimes praised. “Do you really believe you’re not loyal to me?” Trump asked then–chief of staff General John Kelly. Kelly was clear: “I’m certainly part of the administration, but my ultimate loyalty is to the rule of law.” October 22, 2024 – by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson […]

Rebalancing of housing market continues: existing home sales down, inventory up, price growth moderates further

 – by New Deal democrat In the past number of months, I have been looking for a rebalancing of new vs. existing home sales. The sharp increase in mortgage rates beginning in 2022 locked many existing homeowners into their houses, since they could not afford the concomitant increase in mortgage payments that would accrue from […]