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

Jobless claims rise, but still mainly lower YoY: post-pandemic residual seasonality still at work?

 – by New Deal democrat The December JOLTS report that was delayed from Tuesday is scheduled to be released later this morning. I may cover it today, or may delay until tomorrow, since there won’t be a jobs report. In the meantime, let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims which, to reiterate, are a […]

Trump Policies Endanger Farmers as Countries Stop Buying Farm Products Due to Trade War

The challenge facing American farmers was unprecedented trade war with China. Almost immediately, China stopped buying soybeans altogether. This action was in retaliation, following the launch of the Trump administration’s unprecedented trade war. Previously, China was purchasing more than $12 billion worth of American soybean products in 2024. This represented approximately half the value of soybeans grown in the […]

Could Republican officials “take over” voting procedures in 15 states? Or . . .

Could Trump Really “Take Over” the Midterm Elections? Robert Reich My first thought would be, no he can not do so. I believe the courts would move quickly to block such action. The question should be, would Trump defy the courts? In which can and if he does such, what should we as citizens do? […]

Bannon’s latest fever dream

I see where Mussolini wannabe Steve Bannon has been asserting that ICE should swarm election polling places, ostensibly to prevent non-citizens from voting. “During Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon outlined his vision, which, as I alluded to above, should not necessarily be taken as literal White House policy. But it mirrors concerns […]

Medicaid and ACA Healthcare Cuts

Briefly, we have not gotten to the place where the impact of healthcare insurance cuts are going to occur. I suspect the impact will be devastating to many US citizens. July 2025, Republicans led by Trump passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, otherwise known as the budget reconciliation bill. The law, H.R. 1, has […]

January ADP private employment and ISM services reports show increasing stagflation in a weakly growing economy

– by New Deal democrat [Administrative note: the good news is, graphs are back! The bad news is, it is extremely glitchy and energy consuming, so my fingers are still crossed. Basically it boils down to Apple and Google don’t want to interact with one another, and have to be repeatedly dragged, kicking and screaming, into […]

February 3, 2026

More on the Trump administration’s effort to block immigrants from residing in the United States. In this instance, the Trump administration’s Homeland Security Secretary attempts to terminate the temporary protected status of immigrants living legally in the United States. The effort to do so is not gradual. It is an immediate termination of their legal […]

Factors Contributing to U.S. Healthcare Spend

Briefly, just a quick and simple look as what contributes to total US healthcare spending. This is part of a much larger report: “How Has U.S. Health Care Spending Changed Over Time?” I find this part of the report to be interesting. But then, I was a consultant who was looking at throughput analysis. Very […]

Lies, Statistics, and Republican talking points about the ACA

Making the ACA marketplace plans a factor in economic issues is false as Andrew Sprung points out. The costs for marketplace ACA plans will experience similar inflation the same as employer plans. That is unless insurance companies jump on the bandwagon claiming the ACA plans are more expensive. This report is from mid-December. I would […]

The State of Freight is Mainly Recessionary

– by New Deal democrat This morning, we were supposed to get an actual, on-time JOLTS report for December. But with Pastor Mike Johnson having done what he does best, i.e., keeping the House of Representatives out of session while critical deadlines pass, the BLS announced yesterday that several reports, including both Friday’s jobs report for […]