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

Milei and dollarization

I try not to blog about stuff I don’t know much about, but sometimes I can’t help myself.  This is one of those times, so caveat lector.  This could be way off base.  Do not quote this to your friends.  Do not train your AI on it. Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has made noises […]

Open Thread, April 12 2024 Inflation Increases – Look to Gasoline and Shelter

Consumer Price Index – March 2024 (bls.gov) “The BLS index for shelter rose in March, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexescontributed over half of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1percent over the month. The food index rose 0.1 percent in March. The food […]

2024 Life and Death Game Theory Interlude: Voting is An Affirmative Action

If You Choose Not to Decide, You May be an American Restating the premise of my earlier post: Voting is an affirmative action. The more difficult voting is, the more turnout will be reduced. A voter in Oregon needs only to fill out and mail a ballot at any point over a period of time […]

March CPI: Should We Be Worried?

by Dean Baker Center for Economic and Policy Research The inflation hawks took March’s CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet. There is no doubt that it was a disappointing report for those hoping we could put the pandemic inflation behind us. However, there still is not much basis for thinking […]

How much should a life-saving drug cost?

My former chairman used to tell the story of when he was a resident on rounds in the 1950s, he would hear a pounding sound in some of the patient rooms. When he looked in to discover the source, it was a nurse pounding the back of a patient who was stretched across the bed […]

Initial claims continue to be rangebound, and a positive for the near term forecast

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog [NOTE: After traveling all day yesterday, I decided to put off any comments on the CPI upside surprise until later today. Short version is that shelter continues its slow decent, gasoline picked up, and services are accelerating as one might expect in a strong economy with the supply […]

TSMC to begin Pilot Production Operations by mid-April 2024

More semiconductor news. Leading off, TSMC plant delays in Arizona are disappearing. In spite of earlier delays, the Arizona TSMC plant is now expected to be operational by end of 2024. Pilot Production to prove the manufacturing process will start mid-April 2024. Three months earlier, TSMC announced further delays at its $40 billion Arizona fab. […]

Building and Expanding semiconductor facilities

Biden is at it again. This time with Intel in AZ. With all the issues with passing a budget since earlier last year, I wonder how Biden and the Dems got this out of Congress. Must be some pretty good pork involved with these programs to get approvals. Companies are kicking in $240 billion in […]

A Confederate Officer Recounts the Virginia Slavery Debate of 1831–1832

by Ron Coddington Life on the Civil War Research Trail A presentation requested by Dale Coberly about what could have happened if Virginia had followed suit in freeing the slaves pre-Civil War. A Slavery debate in the 1830s. ~~~~~~~~ In his 1910 memoirs, Randolph Harrison McKim, a Confederate officer who served on the staffs of […]