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

Big Bird’s Obituary

About two weeks old but still a good read. Trump defunding public TV. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.” “Big Bird’s Obituary: Greatly Exaggerated” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance April 13 With apologies, tonight’s column runs a little longer than […]

Why Democracy?

& Protecting It Under alternative forms of government such as autocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, etc., and various variants thereof, a small minority runs the country, the nation.  In a democracy, the government belongs to the people.   Democracies are inclusive.  The people choose and depose the leaders. It is thus that everyone has a voice in decision-making. […]

Medigap Coverage by Race, Income, Health Status, and Age

This commentary is a breakdown of Figure 1 detailing each of the results and purposes of Medicap. I favor graphs as it is far easier to understand than reading a few pages. The charts do show issues such as income to afford Medigap and restrictions. I have Plan N which covers most of what I […]

Updating the long leading indicators: “interest rate” levels and duration spreads

 – by New Deal democrat As I noted earlier this week, I haven’t updated my suite of long leading indicators in a while, mainly because they have been overwhelmed by the economic chaos emanating from Washington, and partly also because several important ones are in terra incognito. On Monday and Wednesday I updated the non-financial […]

Investing in Clean Energy and Sustainable Land and Resource Use

The last few weeks in Arizona, we have experienced higher than normal temperatures. Well, of course we are in Arizona, what would you expect? I am hearing from the longer term residents, about 10 degrees lower. It is not terribly hot. just unusual. I believe we face a greater danger from the building of more […]

US Consumers Are in Trouble

Trump’s Never-ending War and Trump’s Never-ending Tariffs are pushing up Never-ending price increases “Why Consumers are F*cked” Robert Reich Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s admission yesterday that it “could be next year” before gas prices return to below $3-a-gallon is causing trauma in Republican circles because “next year” is after the November 3 midterm elections. Initially Trump said he could […]

Jobless claims: still the most positive datapoint in the entire US economy

 – by New Deal democrat Let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims, recently perhaps the most positive datapoint in the entire economy. And it continued to be so this week. New jobless claims rose 6,000 to 214,000, while the four week moving average rose 750 to 210,750. With the typical one week lag, continuing claims […]

Answering the Question of What was the Main Driver of Inflation March 2025 to March 2026?

Commentary taken from; USA Facts. Data is from “Table 7. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. “What are the biggest drivers of inflation in the past year?” USAFacts Answering the question proposed by the title? Housing was the main driver of inflation from March 2025 to March 2026. There is some of my editing […]

“what Donald Trump does for his friends – the people willing to plot a violent insurrection”

Update on what Trump is doing for the remaining Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. 1500 and counting pardoned by Trump. Even though they were guilty of storming the Capitol. The remainders were offered clemency. “Justice According to Trump” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance The Justice Department has moved to drop the last remaining January 6 insurrection […]