As the title says Trump met with a Court Probation Officer. A first for a president. The Probation Officer will assess him for resources, mental health, and criminal record. Trump’s attitude will play a part in this also. Hopefully. his attorney advises him to shut up. Which if he is smart, he will take the advice. Then again, he is of the opinion he will never go to prison. It is interesting, first president tried in a state court, convicted,...

A long and interesting read. And yes on paying the price. Article by David and Lindsay on what is happening today with increasing pricing across the economy. You can experience it in just about every part of the economy. Further on down this article the authors say, this is more about pricing than supply chain. I would say this is true. However, you can discern whether excess pricing can be justified by reviewing the supply chain costs. Not...

Blog Scrap fiscal rules and stop subsidising banks to fix our broken economy Instead of coming up with fiscal tricks that move costs around we need policies that will make a real difference By Dominic Caddick 12 June 2024 In the past five years,...

This paper examines the military-industrial complex (MIC), which is a prototype widely imitated by other business sectors. Collectively, they constitute a variety of capitalism which can be termed the poly-industrial complex (PIC). Understanding the MIC is critical to understanding contemporary US capitalism, US international policy, and the drift toward Cold War II. The MIC exerts […]

[embedded content] WSJ. President Biden’s unprecedented release of oil from the U.S. petroleum reserves in 2022 turned the White House into an unusually active player in the volatile crude market. The flood of emergency supplies helped arrest surging oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine and pulled billions of dollars into the Energy Department’s coffers in the process. Oil prices have sputtered since and allowed officials who sold high to...

 – by New Deal democrat This is a continuation of my post from yesterday discussing the large divergences between the Household and Establishment jobs surveys. A big current issue with the Household Survey is whether, by relying on Census estimates, it has substantially underestimated population growth, and in particular immigration-driven growth, in the past two years. Here’s a graph from Wolf Street, the source material of which I have...

The media and a good chunk of the policy wonks are surprised that Biden does not get the deserved recognition for the relatively good state of the US economy, and that as a result he is suffering in the polls. There are two separate, but interrelated, causes for that. The most obvious can be defined in one word, inflation. The second, is related to the fact that, even though the recovery from the pandemic was fast, the economic situation for most working class people has not been great for a...

I grew up in Oak Ridge TN, the “atomic city.” It was where the uranium was enriched for the Hiroshima bomb. After the war, uranium enrichment found peaceful application in nuclear power plants. Many of the kids I knew growing up had dads who worked at one of the plants–X-10, Y-12, K-25–that researched and developed uranium enrichment and power plant design.After initial enthusiasm for power that would be “too cheap to meter,” nuclear power plants...

Podcasts Neoliberalism: the invisible ideology, with George Monbiot Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by George Monbiot By Ayeisha Thomas-Smith 11 June 2024 We live under an invisible ideology. It tells us that we are not citizens but consumers. That...

It appears the wreckage from the bridge has been cleared away. This will allow container ships, etc. to use the channel in greater capacity to the port. However, getting across the bay will still take time as other routes will need to be taken by cars and trucks. I am sure there are a few angry comments being made as a result of the Dali taking down a major throughfare. Container ship reaching the Baltimore hrbor will resume. ~~~~~~~~ As taken...