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

Slowly Boring into the Heart of Wokeness

Matt Yglesias is stimulating heated discussion — that’s his job. Before getting to the point, I think that his $250,000 guaranteed advance from SubStack has stimulated a lot of extremely intense envy (I know I envy him) which tends to add a bit of spice to his provocative posts one of which is Tema Okun’s […]

Older people are giving up hope of paying off their student loans before they die

While commenting on Alan Collinge’s Student Loan Justice site about much of what is being revealed here, I pointed out the problem with interest, interest on top of interest, paying interest before principal, etc. . It is a problem. You never touch principle. I am very happy to see the Student Loan Justice site and […]

Weekly Indicators for May 3 – 7 at Seeking Alpha

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for May 3 – 7 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. YoY comparisons remain ridiculous, so seasonally adjusted data, plus comparisons with 2019 where available are more informative. That being said, all of the coincident and short leading indicators point towards continued strong expansion. […]

What do we owe to the vaccine-hesitant?

In a recent post, libertarian political philosopher Jason Brennan argues that “we should ignore the welfare of people who choose not to vaccinate out of paranoia”.  We owe them nothing.  Brennan reaches this conclusion by analogizing vaccine hesitancy to a heckler’s veto (my bold): The idea of heckler’s veto goes as follows: Take any action, […]

April jobs report: well, that was a big miss …. but look at the composition

April jobs report: well, that was a big miss …. but look at the composition HEADLINES: +266,000 million jobs added: 218,000 private sector plus 48,000 government. The alternate, and more volatile measure in the household report indicated a gain of 328,000 jobs, which factors into the unemployment and underemployment rates below. U3 unemployment rate rose […]

The long leading indicator of credit conditions has just been updated by the Fed

 by New Deal democrat The long leading indicator of credit conditions has just been updated by the Fed The easing or tightening of credit conditions has a good track record as a long leading indicator, giving us information about whether the economy will be expanding or contracting in 12+ months. The Fed just updated its […]

Fox News Talking Politics with a Sixth Grader

Unfortunately for himself, the young man was polite and did not school Brian Kilmeade (after his comment) about trump’s inaction in the beginning of the Covid Pandemic causing the delay in returning to school. During the young man’s comments to Brian Kilmeade, you can see the young woman in the lower left quadrant shaking her […]