Kevin Drum 🕸

Shrimp boats in Louisiana.

No one likes a high inflation report, but the panic over yesterday's number is a little out of hand. Here is CPI inflation since the late '70s: There's a huge amount of noise in the monthly CPI numbers. What's more, we got used to ultra-low inflation in the decade following the financial crisis. Average CPI ...continue reading "There’s no need to panic over inflation"

The 99 Cents Only chain is closing up shop. LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano headed out to talk to a few customers about it: “I blame [Gavin] Newsom,” said Rick Juarez, 53, referencing the California governor as he entered the store to stock up on batteries. He had shopped at this location for “at least” ...continue reading "Blame Gavin Newsom!"

Donald Trump says he's in favor of states deciding abortion policy for themselves. Unless, that is, they're getting a lot of damaging attention for it: Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Arizona went too far after the state’s high court issued a ruling outlawing abortion.... “Arizona is definitely going to change, everybody wants that ...continue reading "Trump opposes Arizona’s abortion ban. So what about Texas?"

As time goes by, I've gotten less and less interested in studies showing how good modern AI is. Many of them are fascinating, but I want to see real-world examples. Today, the New York Times says Wall Street is about to start replacing junior financial analysts in enormous numbers: The jobs most immediately at risk ...continue reading "First AI came for the grunts…."

The Cass Review, a comprehensive study of adolescent gender care in the UK headed by Dr. Hilary Cass, a consulting pediatrician, was released today. I lack the expertise to evaluate it critically, but here are the points that jumped out at me: There's no single approach that's right for everyone. Transitioning is right for some ...continue reading "UK review says we know almost nothing about gender care for teens"

This is an orangutan at the LA Zoo. Doesn't he look old and wise? I mean, we've all seen the movies. We know that orangutans are the smartest of the apes, right? This was a hard picture to take because the orangutans were behind glass that hadn't been cleaned for at least a few months. ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Atrios asks: Now that elite opinion has coalesced around the idea that Israel has (caveat caveat caveat caveat) gone a bit too far, I really would like someone to explain what changed between January (let alone October) and April? I'm just a simple city blogger and my opinion was clear from the beginning: whatever the ...continue reading "Why are so many people only now turning against the Gaza war?"

From Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commenting on the dire situation in Ukraine: The side that can’t shoot back loses. It's disgraceful that we've given up on Ukraine, and it's beyond disgraceful that this is largely because the Republican Party is following the lead of Donald Trump, who has a personal beef with Ukraine because they refused ...continue reading "Quote of the day: Republicans and Ukraine"

A few days ago Damon Linker wrote a piece for the New York Times claiming that America is broken, and this is why people are so unhappy right now. Linker makes his case by cherry picking a laundry list of bad things that have happened recently, and he's certainly right about some of them. Iraq ...continue reading "For the millionth time: People are happy and things are going OK"

Inflation slowed a bit in March from its February surge. On an annualized basis headline CPI inflation came in at 4.6%, down from 5.4% last month. Core CPI was unchanged at 4.4%. Groceries continued to show zero inflation in March. Transportation and medical care were up sharply. As usual lately, inflation in services was high ...continue reading "Inflation slows in March"

Every newspaper in the world is reporting today that California has spent $24 billion on homeless programs over the past five years. This is because the state auditor released a report saying: According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the State allocated nearly $24 billion for homelessness and housing during the last five fiscal years, or ...continue reading "California hasn’t spent $24 billion on homelessness"

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, has written a buzzy article at the Free Press about how NPR has recently fallen apart. He attributes this to widespread changes following the murder of George Floyd in 2020: There’s [now] an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. ...continue reading "The peculiar tale of NPR’s decline and fall"

Today the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that abortion in the state is completely illegal unless the mother's life is in danger. Because I like to torture myself, I read the opinion to find out what they based that on. If you also like to torture yourself, read on. Arizona has long had a law ...continue reading "Here’s why abortion is now illegal in Arizona"

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about going out to take a picture of a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Not all the way out to Vandenberg, but maybe to Palos Verdes where I could get a clear view. But then the launch was delayed, and I never did it. On ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Sigh. The prostate biopsy results came back this morning and I have prostate cancer. It's "large and aggressive," but still probably treatable via normal radiation therapy. We won't know for sure until I get a CT scan and a bone scan that tell us whether the cancer is limited to the prostate or has metastasized ...continue reading "Health update"

It's a miracle! Suddenly conservatives no longer believe in a national abortion ban. It should be up to each state: Fox’s stars are rallying behind Trump’s abortion message. The network is a pro-Trump propaganda outlet first and foremost, not an ideologically conservative one. https://t.co/7Y4QZGQEJr — Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 9, 2024 If abortion is murder, ...continue reading "Abortion? It’s no big deal anymore."

Sen. Lindsey Graham didn't like Donald Trump's abortion punt this morning and issued a statement saying so. Trump hit back with half a dozen vicious posts on Truth Social: “Many Good Republicans lost Elections because of this Issue, and people like Lindsey Graham, that are unrelenting, are handing Democrats their dream of the House, Senate, ...continue reading "Trump blasts Graham for staying firm on abortion ban"

Global sea temps should have passed their peak a couple of weeks ago. Somebody forgot to tell them:

Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of National Review, says: Axios has a story up, headlined, “Trump, GOP plot 2025 criminal probe of Bidens.” I generally favor leaving former presidents alone, but, as I’ve noted before, it’s hard to see how one side can violate this norm and not expect the precedent to be turned against it. A ...continue reading "National Review editor: Biden should fully expect to be criminally tried if Trump wins"