Kevin Drum 🕸

Be still my heart: President-elect Donald Trump plans to fire the entire team that worked with special counsel Jack Smith to pursue two federal prosecutions against the former president, including career attorneys typically protected from political retribution, according to two individuals close to Trump’s transition. Trump is also planning to assemble investigative teams within the ...continue reading "All Trump’s demons are being set loose"

I just got back from a bit of shopping at our local Albertson's. I haven't been to this particular store in a while, and I noticed that in my absence they had joined the crowd and put loads of stuff behind locked cabinets. This led to the following conversation while I was checking out: ME: ...continue reading "Supermarkets and shoplifting: A brief conversation"

I'm completely fed up with Google. They took away my ability to get more than ten hits per page, and there's now so much damn cruft on the results page (AI, ads, shopping, videos, etc. etc.) that it often has only six or seven actual site links. It's maddening because I often have to go ...continue reading "I’m done with Google search"

Here is Hilbert lounging on the top of the sofa. He doesn't do this much anymore because there's a red blanket (courtesy of American Airlines) on the sofa at the moment and both he and Charlie adore it. Every time I come into the living room they've switched off and a new cat is curled ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 22 November 2024"

The New York Times reports today on a new study that shows an increase in alcohol-related deaths between 1999 and 2020. But it's based on numbers from the CDC's WONDER database, which is public and has a category just for alcohol. Here it is: Sure enough, it's way up. Check the right boxes and you ...continue reading "Yep, alcohol deaths are way up"

Are you on Twitter and would like to follow reliable economic commentary? Here are my top picks: Matt Darling Noah Smith Matt Yglesias Dean Baker There are lots of good people on Twitter who don't say much about economics. And there are lots of good economists who don't say much on Twitter. But these four ...continue reading "My econ picks on Twitter"

A reader has shamed me into updating yesterday's chart showing how often Fox News mentioned inflation after the election was over. Here's a comparison with all TV news: The drop at Fox News was more dramatic than most, but in fact everyone decided to stop talking about inflation once the election was over. (The mid-month ...continue reading "Another look at inflation and Fox News"

The Michigan index of consumer expectations (not current consumer sentiment) is doing its usual thing in the wake of the election: As usual, Republicans are considerably more partisan about the economy than Democrats. After Joe Biden's election their expectations dropped about 75 points while Democratic expectations rose 30 points. This time around Republican expectations are ...continue reading "Republican economic optimism is skyrocketing already"

I'm not trying to be the bearer of bad news, but it strikes me that several economic indicators are blinking red right now. The yield curve has been negative for a while and has just turned upward. GDP growth has been above potential for several quarters in a row. Job growth has been slowing down ...continue reading "A recession is probably in our near future"

With Matt Gaetz out of the picture, Donald Trump has moved quickly to refill the attorney general job. His choice is Pam Bondi, the telegenic former attorney general of Florida and frequent Fox News guest host. Bondi is a big time Trump loyalist these days, but it hasn't always been so. Remember when Trump had ...continue reading "Pam Bondi, Trump’s $25,000 friend, is his new AG choice"

Guess what? Inflation is over! According to Fox News, anyway: Inflation itself hasn't changed over the past couple of weeks, but for some reason Fox News doesn't seem to care about it anymore. Here's a longer look: Sadly, the Internet Archive suffered some technical difficulties right before the election, so the series is interrupted. But ...continue reading "Fox News declares inflation over"

Good news! Remember all those Republicans who said their personal finances got worse as soon as Joe Biden was elected? They're suddenly all better: In just the past two weeks, the share of Republicans who say their personal finances are worse than a year ago has plummeted by 14 percentage points. Apparently our long national ...continue reading "Republican finances have suddenly recovered"

This is a throwaway sentence in a CNN story about problems with the Stellantis vehicle lineup: Chrysler, once the company’s core brand, is essentially down to one model, the Pacifica minivan, arguably the weakest segment of the US market. It turns out this isn't quite fair. It's true that the Voyager minivan is just a ...continue reading "Chrysler is down to one car"

This is muddy old Santiago Creek after a rainstorm last year that tossed a little bit of snow onto our local mountains. Even with the rain it's unusual to get a sky so clear all the way to the horizon around here. Even when there's no smog, there's always haze.

According to the Census Bureau's latest estimate, total revenue for childcare establishments increased 6.1% in the second quarter of the year. Not bad. Here's a long-term look at childcare adjusted for the population of 0-4 year-olds: Childcare seems to be doing nicely even after the pandemic subsidies went away. However, families are paying a price: ...continue reading "Raw data: Childcare after the pandemic"

Did you know that housing prices increased as much under Trump as they have under Biden? They did: If you adjust for inflation the increase is bigger under Trump than Biden. Unexpected, perhaps, but true.

In what's become a routine fixture of Republican legislators faced with the horror of a Democratic governor taking office, North Carolina legislators have rushed through a bill that strips the incoming governor of various powers. This one is a particular beauty: Under another section of the bill, the governor must fill any vacancies on the ...continue reading "North Carolina creates permanent Republican Supreme Court"

Here's the thing. There are places where I think the trans movement goes overboard, either by promoting extreme niche issues (biological boys in girls sports) or by dismissing inconvenient science too cavalierly (puberty blockers). But then a trans woman gets elected to Congress and Republicans respond in their usual repellent way by loudly banning trans ...continue reading "Mike Johnson can go fuck himself"

Eggs again? The Washington Post reports that yet another chicken plague is tanking supply: Eggs have vanished from many U.S. grocery shelves in recent weeks, sparking consumer fears that a shortage could coincide with the holiday season. Egg production in the U.S. dropped 2.6 percent in October from a year ago and is projected to ...continue reading "Nothing gets between Americans and their eggs"

Double the cancers, double the health updates! Here's the latest test result for multiple myeloma: Cosmically speaking, 0.40 isn't super great, but it's not bad and it's down from two months ago. This means it's unfortunate that I can't tolerate the Talvey, since it produced a pretty noticeable improvement after only one dose. Hopefully the ...continue reading "Health update"