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

Immigration déjà vu

Trump is promising mass deportations if he’s elected. He claims this will create jobs and economic growth. We’ve been here before. “In the 1930s, state and local governments deported 400,000 to 500,000 people of Mexican descent, promising to create jobs for Americans during the Great Depression. What actually happened? The employment of native-born Americans dropped […]

States Continue to Enact Protections for Patients with Medical Debt

Two in five Americans have outstanding health care bills, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Those with payments overdue are more likely to be uninsured, low-income, and either Black or Hispanic. What’s more, the total amount of outstanding medical debt in the United States is much bigger than people think. ~~~~~~~ Most states have not yet enacted […]

Day 2 of the Courts Review of the FTC v Kroger Merger

We have already posted on Grocery Stores artificially holding prices high and the use of another entity gathering those prices and supplying them to various entities. In day two, Kroger’s use of Albertson’s higher pricing to set their own pricing is a ” strategic avoidance of lowering pricing.” Read on, I will gather up Day […]

Manufacturing and construction together suggest weak but still expanding leading sectors

 – by New Deal democrat As usual we start the month with two important reports on the leading sectors of  manufacturing and construction. First, the ISM manufacturing index showed contraction yet again, with the headline number “less negative” by way of increasing from 46.8 to 47.2, and the more leading new orders subindex declining sharply […]

Opiate Addiction Treatment

I have long thought that there is a (partially effective) treatment for opiate addiction — suboxone. To review suboxone is a mixture of buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine is a partial opiate receptor agonist (activator) which also blocks other opiates. At least when taken orally, it relieves opiate craving but does not make people high and […]

Policy Proposals, Feelings About Issues, and that Nasty Newly African American Woman who laughs

I have read many articles quoting (brave) Republicans complaining about Donald Trump’s focus on personal, petty and implausible attacks on Kamala Harris. They often assert that if the election were decided on the basis of policy or issues, then Trump would win. Here is the latest discussion I read about that (just the available link […]

For Labor Day: 4 measures of worker wage growth

 – by New Deal democrat On this Labor Day, it is fitting to update the economic state of ordinary workers. There is a variety of economic data series to track both average and median wages: Without further ado, here is the update for all four. Average hourly wages are updated through July; the other three […]

Ken Burns Keynote Address to the Graduating Class of 2024

Why would I be timely with this Keynote Address to the Class of 2024 by Ken Burns. Fifty-something addresses to graduating classes at Brandeis University. Good listen if you have 25 minutes to hear it. Ken Burns books are good reads and make for something to do while spending 10 or more hours on a […]

COVID-19 deaths and the efficacy of the Covid vaccine

The university where I was on faculty for 37 years has one of ten NIH-funded vaccine testing and evaluation units in the US. I vividly recall attending a presentation by the clinical director of our vaccine center in January of 2020 on the then-new SARS-CoV-2 virus. By the summer, our vaccine center became a clinical […]

More on Why Albertsons Should Not Be Allowed to Combine with Kroger

We have shopped at both stores and also Frys which is also a part of Kroger. Of the three, Ftys is less costly. Our Frys always seems to be out of product. We end up at Bashas to fill out the rest of or grocery shopping, or Sprouts which has excellent veggies, or make the […]