Planes, Trains, and Matches — Or the Iran War, 5% Treasuries, and Political Fireworks

The Iran war’s economic effects could pull oil, diesel, Treasury yields, and election politics out of their separate crisis lanes and into one grim American adventure. I’ve been watching a developing situation in America that reminds me of a classic Calvin and Hobbes comic strip installment where Calvin plays a game and weaves together the […]

White conscience is on Tuesday’s Presidential ballot

African Americans have long ago made up their minds about Trump. But wassup with White people? Trump’s anemic Platinum Plan overtures aside — and I still believe the motivation behind that trick is to peel away as much Black support for Presidential candidate Joe Biden as possible, instead of uplifting the lives of marginalized people […]

Of course, there will be another coronavirus ‘stimulus’ in the US …

But we ARE living in 2020 … With 40 million Americans out of work while the coronavirus pandemic has scared most other Americans out of resuming life as usual, should there even be a question about President Donald Trump passing another round of fiscal ‘stimulus’ to avoid what could easily become the second Great Depression? No […]

Unpacking Trumpland: Will He Avoid the Economic Storm Ahead?

I want to continue my thoughts from yesterday about the possibility of another economic crisis ahead and what President-elect Donald Trump could do for the poor and middle class. For starters, I’m going to state two things that will make Conservatives and Liberals cackle and become pissed — not necessarily in that order or at the same […]

Unpacking Trumpland: The Economic Storm Ahead

“And now Yellen raised the rates.” I’ll get back to the importance of Yellen in a moment. There’s so much to unpack with this blog, given the panic of fake news, the Trumpocalypse and Evil Muva Russia 2.0 — I’ll need a series of posts to cover everything. But I want to start by explaining […]

SUNDAY SMACK: 2008 ALL OVER AGAIN?

The two stupefying Wall Street Journal charts about US credit card debt you see above has caused me to break from my typical Sunday Smack format of simply raising questions without a strong injection of my opinion. Banks are issuing more credit cards today than they did just prior to the 2008 financial crash while […]

BIG WAVE OF BOND DEFAULTS COMING

I’ll get around to posting more detailed thoughts about the economy by next week at latest, but those of you who’ve read my posts like this or this already know that I think the global economic recovery of 2009 is a joke. Yes, “global” includes the United States. In “The Coming Default Wave Is […]

DREAM CHASIN’ AND PARTY TRIPPIN’ — HOW YOU CREATED ‘TRUMP 2016’

As I looked at last night’s Party of No Brains debate, I recalled my prediction of Donald Trump’s strong shot at being that party’s nominee — even before his first candidate debate. Back then, I made parallels between the cultural pessimism Americans faced during the late 70’s — which catalyzed the election of Ronald Reagan […]

WHAT BAY RIDGE, BROOKLYN CAN TELL YOU ABOUT THE NEXT FINANCIAL CRASH

The Bay Ridge couple I recently saw in the Whitehall Street subway station☆ may provide a clue about the fate of the US economy. But I should first describe Bay Ridge, so that you can see what I mean. A predominantly Irish and Italian neighborhood for much of the 20th century, and popularized by the […]

THE ONE PERCENT LOVES ICON-CHASERS

This recycled simmer-boil-simmer debate about whether to destroy, honor or moth-ball the Confederate flag reminds me of Americans’ drug-like habit of chasing icons and fighting over labels—undoubtedly violence-supporting icons which are emotionally powerful, but have no real power. I’ll get back to that thought in a moment, but allow me to throw a large slice […]