Category Archives: economics

The Trump Recession

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Trump Recession is upon us. Not officially, that could take months. But the handwriting is on the wall. Just as clear as it was one year ago when every creditable economist warned Donald Trump’s plans for trade tariffs and government layoffs would knock the Goldilocks economy of Joe Biden off its feet. Seventy-seven million voters didn’t believe it. Or didn’t care. Now they can care. Or not. It’s hard to tell.

The latest GDP report shows that the U.S. economy contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, marking a sharp downturn from the 2.4% growth in the final quarter of 2024. This decline was largely driven by a surge in imports ahead of Trump’s newly announced tariffs, which widened the trade deficit and negatively impacted GDP calculations.

Read more

Hip hip for Harvard

Posted on by 3 comments

Whether it was a high school football game on a Friday night or a college matchup you have probably all participated in a roaring cheer at one time or another. Anyone who has been following these posts for a while knows that I earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton many years ago where I cheered on many a Princeton team. The college cheer was in fact heard for the first time at the famous first ever college football game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869.

I write that preamble so that you get the significance of my rousing cheer for Harvard, Princeton’s rival among rivals in the league of elite universities. It is special when a Princeton tiger is moved to compliment people who wear crimson robes. Harvard does have a mascot I am told. But it appears to be an inanimate statue of the school’s founder, which must look strange along the sidelines. I digress.

Read more

Trump on California, Burn

Posted on by Leave a comment

This is what our once and future president wrote this morning about the tragic fires in the Los Angeles area which have, as of this writing, taken two lives, forced tens of thousands out of their homes, and caused millions of dollars’ worth of property damage.

How can anyone be such a monster? And how could we have elected him once again?

Newsom‘s office has dismissed these claims as “pure fiction” and accused Trump of playing politics. The governor has focused on ensuring that firefighters have the resources they need to combat the fires.

Read more

President Musk

Posted on by Leave a comment

What do you get the guy who has everything? Better still, what does the guy who has everything buy for himself? Elon Musk bought himself a president.

Musk spent about $277 million to back Donald Trump in his successful campaign to win a second term. In return, Trump apppointed Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and former candidate turned rabid Trump supporter, to run the grandiosely named “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)“. This sounds official but in fact is a sort of advisory panel with no legal authority, charged by Trump to focus on regulating government spending and to cut regulations. How much influence Musk has is a function of how much attention Trump pays to him. It appears $277 million buys you a lot of attention.

Read more

Here We Go Again

Posted on by Leave a comment

It was about 3:00am the day after the election in 2016 when I came to the conclusion that Donald Trump would win, beating Hillary Clinton. This time, I knew it at midnight.

Read more

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

Posted on by One comment

One thing the political polls agree on is the number one concern on the minds of voters. It’s the economy. It is ALWAYS the economy.

The problem, at least for Vice President Harris, is that what voters call the economy is not what economists call the economy. What voters mean when they say economy is prices as in, the price of a gallon of gasoline, the price of a bottle of milk, the price of a dozen eggs. Those prices are up. And as is usual, the incumbent gets the blame.

Read more

Boeing Blows Another One

Posted on by Leave a comment

Boeing’s Starliner capsule is seen docked to the International Space Station in this zoomed-in view of an image captured by Maxar Technologies’ WorldView-3 satellite on June 7, 2024. (Image credit: Maxar Technologies via NASA)

Update Sept 7, 2024

The Starliner capsule returned to Earth safely from the International Space Station last night, without the two astronauts it took up there in June. Boeing and NASA engineers will review the vehicle’s performance on reentry as they consider the future of the program.

Two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth next year on a SpaceX “Crew Dragon” vehicle, their planned eight-day test flight turned into a two-thirds of a year ordeal. It is yet another of a long list of failures by the once venerated aerospace company in recent years.

Read more
« Older Entries Recent Entries »