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

Flaw & Fixes

Our Republic is in great peril.  The democracy so proudly brought forth hangs in the balance. The ever-so critical upcoming midterms won’t be Democrats vs. Republicans; they will be we the people vs. them, democracy vs. autocracy and fascism.  Will be even more so if we make it to the 2028 elections (a huge if).  […]

Versatility of conviction in Iran

The justifications for the war on Iran were kind of a dog’s breakfast. Among those mentioned were regime change and unconditional surrender, which promised a long commitment and boots on the ground. Looks like the stock market and oil prices got through to Cadet Bone Spurs. “What this all comes down to is that the […]

Election Funding to Aid Marginal Republicans in Elections

“The Rural Slush Fund” for healthcare that will be used to aid marginal Republicans during elections. Merrill Goozner GoozNews How the $50 billion bailout for rural health care providers will be used to aid vulnerable Republicans in the mid-term elections. Has it only been four days since the end of that brief moment when affordability, […]

USA Wages and Inflation

USA Facts asks the question, “Are wages keeping up with inflation?” It answers the quest and then provides the data to support its contention. Saying “Yes. From January 2025 to January 2026, wages grew 1.9 percentage points faster than inflation.” When you are listening to the news or reading an article in one of the […]

“new research on foreigners bearing the tariff burden”

Commentary by Erica York at the Tax Foundation on the pass-through impact of tariffs on pricing in the United States. The other possibility is companies may they eat it for a short period of time and maybe pass it through later in the time-table. The idea being the United States may later drop the tariff […]

How $4/gallon gas could take the economy from a nearly complete stall into outright recession

– by New Deal democrat So, first some bad news: my tech issue has resurfaced, so only links to graphs rather than graphs themselves, hopefully just for a day or two. Basically, unless I keep a bar up open to the blog page, Google and Apple sever their “handshake,” and I have to start from […]

A time of reckoning

Much is being made of the probable consequences of Trump’s Iran war for the US economy and the midterm elections. And “it’s the economy, stupid” still describes the dominant consideration in the minds of American voters. But to the extent that foreign policy affects the ballot box, the fact that Trump’s invasion is a proxy […]

Trump Goes to War , , ,

I would not change this title for anything of value. For Trump, this is like playing with toy soldiers. He also thinks of those of us serving and who have served as snooks. Then such bravado on display by him. Tough Guy as long as someone else does the fighting. A man’s man as long […]

A Measure of Tax Decreases for the Upper 10% of Households

I pulled this bullet point information from Josh Bivens piece on the Economic Policy Institute: “The Trump administration’s macroeconomic agenda harms affordability and raises inequality,” Economic Policy Institute. Graph showing the difference in return over 40 years versus Trump’s tax break for the wealthy in one year. It is the same return. It is interesting […]