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

Trump promotes vaccine resistance

Vaccines are an unalloyed triumph of public health. That Donald Trump is attacking vaccines—any vaccines—is obscene. “ . . . on at least 17 occasions this year, Trump has promised to cut funding to schools that mandate vaccines. Campaign spokespeople have previously said that pledge would apply only to schools with COVID mandates. But speeches […]

Wason Poll: Harris Leads Trump by 11 points Among Virginia’s Likely Voters

Wason Oct 7 Survey 24 New Wason Poll: Harris Leads Trump by 11 points Among Virginia Likely Voters – Christopher Newport University (cnu.edu) NEWPORT NEWS, VA — The Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University today released its first statewide survey for the elections on November 5th. The survey indicates, Democrat Kamala Harris […]

In-depth look at the leading indicators from the employment report

– by New Deal democrat First things first: there’s almost no significant economic news at all this week until Thursday, so don’t be surprised if I play hooky for a day or two. The coincident headline news out of last Friday’s employment report was very positive, so most all observers heaved a sigh of relief. Of […]

ICE Mortgage Monitor: Insurance Costs “Spike”, Especially in Florida

Former Bear Bill McBride at Calculated Risk is sharing another of his excellent commentaries. This time his focus is on rising homeowner insurance costs. Timely for sure. Helene has gone through the southern states and another hurricane is coming. Insurance costs were up then and will more-than-likely increase again for states bordering the Atlantic. I […]

“Death and the Penguin”

Economist David Zetland at The one-handed economist blog offers up another interesting book review detailing life in Ukraine during the nineties. David Zetland, The One Arm Economist’s Book Review: “Death and the Penguin“ This 1996 novel by Andrei Kurkov tells the story of a failing writer who suddenly finds himself with a full-time job writing obituaries. […]

RNA wins the Nobel Prize—again!

Last year, mRNA vaccines won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This morning found RNA once again the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. By the time I finished college, RNA was familiar to me as a family of biopolymers that together specified the manufacture of proteins in cells. Ribosomal RNA […]

Real Gross Product is Increasing – Third Estimate

Taken from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Gross Domestic Product (Third Estimate), Corporate Profits (Revised Estimate), and GDP by Industry, Second Quarter 2024 and Annual Update Partial Report: Real gross domestic product (GDP) is increasing at an annual rate of 3.0 percent as shown in the second quarter of 2024 (table 1). This is according to […]

New Deal democrats “Weekly Indicators” for September 30 – October 4

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. There was a slight fading of several indicators in the short leading and coincident sphere, but overall the positive and improving trend continues. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to the state of the […]