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

Tariffs Bite into Tax Refunds

Erica York (VP Tax Foundation) discusses how the Trump tariffs will cut into the income tax relief for all tax brackets due. Read on . . . We’ve spent a lot of time in this newsletter tracking the surge in tariff revenue over the past year. Now it’s tax filing season, and those two stories are colliding. Recent […]

Another one-man militia

The Scalia SCOTUS determined that the founding fathers meant for each American to be their own personal militia. So, for me, this isn’t surprising: “At around 12:13 a.m., officers responded to a call about a person with a gun at 309 Linden Street, the Bristol district attorney’s office said. “Officers said they found Nigel Vaughn, […]

Expect shelter inflation to continue abating in the next few CPI reports

– by New Deal democrat There’s no significant economic news until Wednsday’s jobs report, as to which Scott Bessent gave an interview this morning on CNBC which amounted to, “Don’t Panic!!!” Which I am sure inspires confidence in everybody (I’ve been expecting downward revisions to much of last year as part of the annual benchmarking, so […]

More Likely than Not, the policy violates both the law and the right to due process

When you hear the term “More Likely than Not,” whoever says such is saying it is not 100%. When you heard the term, it is thought the probably of something occurring is greater than 50%. “The more likely than not’ standard establishes the measure of proof required for a party to succeed in a legal […]

Dispatch from the front lines of the SC measles epidemic

I had measles as a child, before the vaccine. I survived with no discernible sequelae. My daughter got the vaccine, along with all the other childhood vaccines, also with no discernible sequelae. Now, thanks to the anti-vaxxer propaganda and the RFK Jr policy of sowing doubt about the benefits and safety of vaccines, the population […]

Measles Denial

Heather at Crooks and Liars writing about a conversation between Robert Kennedy and Dana Bash. “Dr. Mehmet Oz’s nonsense that Robert F. Kennedy is supposedly “at the very front of” vaccine advocacy was too much for the usually passive Dana Bash to stomach. Here’s Oz trying to pretend that Kennedy isn’t a raging lunatic antivaxxer […]