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

“Deferring to pres. Trump in his determination to decide how large is large and how serious is serious?”

Sorry for the length of this piece. Trump will be heading back to SCOTUS with another proposal granting him unlimited authority. He really knows no bounds for the presidency when it comes to deciding outside of Congress. The Presidency proposes and Congress taxes, appropriates, budgets, and spends when it comes to the economy. Trump prefers […]

Investigating Excess Capacity and Labor Practices

Before you start to believe this administration cares about in country’s manufacturing and people working more hours for less pay, think about it first. Do you really believe this administration cares about either? It is all about giving an edge to him to play the nation’s economy to fill his pocket. Guest Commentary by Erica […]

Fuel Shortage in Asia

I am always curious about what happens in other countries when there is an oil shortage. In this case it is fuel for cabs to cart westerners and Europeans around. For them, this is serious. No fuel, potentially no income from westerners transporting them. In Bangkok, Thais make a living shuffling westerners around. We have […]

Running Out of Funding . . .

As reported at Common Dreams by Jake Johnson, “The Pentagon reportedly wants Congress to approve more than $200 billion in supplemental funding for US President Donald Trump’s unauthorized and deeply unpopular war on Iran as the administration weighs deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East, signaling a drawn-out conflict and a possible ground invasion.” AB: […]

Trump giveth and Trump taketh away

While crowing about how it’s sinking the Iranian economy, the Trump Administration is literally keeping it afloat. “In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water,” Bessent said on Fox Business Thursday. The US is already allowing Iranian oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and that nation has […]

A detailed look at interpreting expansionary and pre-recession layoff and unemployment signals

– by New Deal democrat This week, in addition to my usual look at jobless claims, especially in view of my post earlier this week breaking down the components of aggregate nonsupervisory payrolls,  I want to compare them with several other indicators of increased joblessness in terms of their expansion and pre-recession dynamics.  First, let’s look […]

Drops in ACA Silver Plans

What Andrew Sprung is discussing is the impact of Republicans and Trumps’ change to the funding for ACA healthcare. To explain premium tax credit improvements expired at the end of 2025, causing 2026 premiums to spike for all marketplace enrollees, whether or not they receive premium tax credits. The expiration of the enhanced tax subsidies […]

The impact of the Iran war oil price spike on stagflation

– by New Deal democrat Even before the Iran war started almost three weeks ago, the US economy was in something of a stagflationary scenario. Let’s take a look at how the war, and in particular the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has impacted that, starting with the direct effects and then following the […]

Differing Views on Why the President can not Impose Tariffs

On February 20, 2026, SCOTUS decided on a case as to whether the president has the constitutional authority to impose tariffs during peacetime. Three of the noted conservative justices in the past sided with the more liberal judges in determining whether the president has such power to impose tariffs. What the author of this piece […]