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

USPS facing a cash crisis

“As USPS faces a cash crisis, rivals FedEx, UPS spend big on lobbying” – By Joedy McCreary, April 13, 2026 Open Secrets FedEx and UPS spent almost $20 million on lobbying last year. (Photo by 400tamx/Getty Images) FedEx and UPS – two private carriers positioned to capitalize on a weakened U.S. Postal Service – poured […]

$4 per Gallon Gasoline Is ‘Not Very High’

In the seventies when gasoline doubled in price from 30-35 cents per gallon to 60 and seventy cents per gallon, people were pretty angry with the Arabs. That was a big increase and vehicles were not terribly efficient. There were pickups. However, there was not so high a percentage of them on the road. Today […]

Lies about Inflation, Prices, and Jobs . . .

Prof. Paul Krugman made mention of the Survey of Consumers findings. It gets kind of interesting. Trump tells stories and an expert calls him out. Two different articles. A portion from Prof. Krugman’s latest and the latest from the Surveys of Consumers where Prof. Krugman uses to point out Trump’s erroneous comments. In his latest: […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for April 13 – 17

My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. The biggest news this week is how sharply oil prices backed off of their recent highs, as speculators figure that all will soon be back to (at least close to) the status quo ante in the Persian Gulf. Secondarily, the Empire State and Philly Manufacturing Indexes continued […]

March industrial production

“March industrial production mainly continues stagnant trend”  – by New Deal democrat Since I didn’t get to it yesterday, let me say a few words about yesterday’s industrial production report for March this morning. I used to call this “the King of Coincident Indicators,” but with the shrinking of manufacturing as a share of the US […]