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

Jobless claims continue at very low levels

“Jobless claims continue at very low levels (plus an update on tech enshittification)”  – by New Deal democrat I’ll post on the updated housing situation later this morning. Meanwhile, before I get to jobless claims, a brief update on the tech situation. It turns out that I am not the only person having this problem. Basically […]

March 9 2026 and . . .

At Angry Bear, Dale Coberly is the resident expert on Social Security. He is the go-to person for questions or discussions. Dale and Bruce Webb wrote on the topic and were known for their knowledge. The issue here being, we are running a shortage of funding. There is still time to correct SS with small […]

Here’s a project for RFK Jr

Vaccines have proven efficacy and public health value over billions of doses and, in many cases, decades of experience world-wide. In spite of this record, the Secretary of HHS insists on calling into question vaccine safety. Yet under his nose, Americans are experimenting with unproven and potentially dangerous peptide injections. “Here’s a new trend that […]

Recent Gasoline Pricing and Six Months of History

Charts below are taken from Gas Buddy and cover one month (left) and six months (right) of pricing trends. As you can see, fuel prices were on a downward trend having hit a low in and around January 2026. Pricing had dropped ~ 40 cents per gallon. I can tell you similar did not occur […]

Can China poach US-trained scientists?

There were few if any Chinese students in my college classes and none in my graduate program. There was only one Chinese postdoc in the lab where I did postdoctoral training, and no Chinese grad students. But two of the four grad students who started in my department when I started as a faculty in […]

“No further progress is likely in the near term towards the Fed’s 2.0% Target”

February CPI: a likely last hurrah for relatively tame consumer price increases  – by New Deal democrat Much like last month, February benefited from shelter and gas prices – for a change – pulling in the same, disinflating, direction. Needless to say, I do not expect that to be the case for March! But in the […]

Presidential Orders in Passing

“Trump Makes ‘Most Blasé Admission of a War Crime by a US President in History.’ Common Dreams President Donald Trump said the US Navy chose to sink an Iranian frigate, killing more than 100 sailors last week, because it was “more fun” than capturing the vessel, even though the ship posed no threat. Though death tolls vary, Iran’s […]

The “gold standard” QCEW for last Q3 strongly suggests no job growth whatsoever in 2025

– by New Deal democrat The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) is “the gold standard of US employment measures. It is an actual census of 95%+ of all employers, who must report new employees for purposes like unemployment and disability benefits. Because of this, it is used for the final revisions, a/k/a bench-marks, for monthly […]