Kevin Drum 🕸

Since January, grocery prices have gone up a grand total of 1.1%. That's literally not noticeable. So why are people still complaining about high food prices? This chart tells the story: Since 2021, which is when the big inflationary surge started, food prices have gone up 20% while wages have gone up only 12%. Shoppers ...continue reading "Food inflation is gone, but food prices are still high"

Rudy Giuliani has been found liable with extreme prejudice for defaming two Georgia poll workers: Jurors [awarded] roughly $33 million for the two women together. But plaintiff’s attorney Michael Gottlieb made no specific ask when it came to emotional or punitive damages. Instead he told the jury to “send a message “to Giuliani and any ...continue reading "Giuliani ordered to pay damages of $148 million in defamation case"

Charlie is not a happy cat. He wounded his back leg somehow, so we took him to the vet and got him an antibiotic shot, but of course recovery also includes a cone to keep him from licking the spot. The regular cone was too big, so we got him this stylish Darth Vader cone ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 15 December 2023"

On an annual basis, the United States supplies about 12% of Israel's military budget. That's the equivalent of topping up the US military budget by $100 billion per year.

TikTok and Instagram get all the attention, but YouTube remains by far the most popular social media app among American teens: On YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, Hispanic teens report using them "almost constantly" at rates more than three time higher than white teens. Among teens, generally speaking, social media is most heavily used by Hispanics, ...continue reading "YouTube remains the national champion of teen social media sites"

How are our family farms doing? The USDA's annual survey reports good news: As in previous years, the median total income of all U.S. family farm households ($95,418) was greater in 2022 than the median income of all U.S. households ($74,580). The median total household income for all family farms in 2022 increased from $92,239 ...continue reading "Fact of the day: Most family farms make no money"

The New York Times presents us today with this chart showing congressional retirements compared to the past couple of election cycles: It looks like everything is perfectly normal this year. Both Democratic and Republican retirements are right on track with their 2022 levels.

Ho ho ho: Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress. The measure, spearheaded by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which passed out of the ...continue reading "Republicans to Trump: We’re not pulling out of NATO"

Today Mother Jones re-upped an interview from 2021 with Dorothy Brown, a law professor at Emory University who argues that the US tax code is rigged against Black people. The example she gives has to do with the so-called "marriage penalty," which in some cases makes taxes higher for married couples than if they had ...continue reading "The racial impact of the marriage penalty"

Do I have any readers under 30? This chart made the rounds today and I'm confused: I don't know how accurate this is, but I've seen plenty of charts like it. Here's what I don't get. It makes sense that online introductions have gone up. But that much? People still go to college, they go ...continue reading "How great is online dating?"

Here's my sorta-monthly look at how Joe Biden is polling compared to our last two presidents: Biden has dipped recently and is no longer equal to Obama and Trump at this point in their presidencies. But the differences are still at the noise level. We have not yet seen the whites of their eyes.

Here's a look at recent gasoline prices: There's really nothing to see. When we started driving less at the start of the pandemic, that reduced demand for gasoline and prices went down. At the start of the Ukraine war supplies of gasoline cratered and prices went up. Aside from that, gasoline has been pretty steadily ...continue reading "Gasoline prices are back down to normal"

This is a lovely day on Paris's Left Bank taken from the Pont Saint-Michel. The Île de la Cité is on the right.

What the actual fuck? Tainted cinnamon applesauce pouches that have sickened scores of children in the U.S. may have been purposefully contaminated with lead, according to FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones. ....The agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have collaborated with state and local health authorities as well as ...continue reading "FDA: Applesauce was deliberately tainted with lead"

The Wall Street Journal says that the world's central bankers have won their long, brutal battle against inflation: You know, if central banks are declaring victory for getting inflation down, then they must have done something wrong to make inflation go up in the first place. Maybe they should hold off on the hosannas. Alternatively, ...continue reading "Victory over inflation!"

The BEA released price levels by state today for 2022. Here's how your state stacks up: This includes housing costs, so it's no surprise that DC and California top the list. Conversely, your dollar goes the furthest in Arkansas and Mississippi. Keep this in mind when you're deciding where to retire. Note that virtually all ...continue reading "How expensive is your state?"

Here's an interesting chart from Brian Schaffner. It's a little hard to parse, so take a look and I'll explain it below: Take a look at the left panel, for Democrats. Then, at the bottom, move over to the right to the line for people whose incomes increased $40K or more. It shows that about ...continue reading "Republicans just can’t bring themselves to acknowledge good economic news"

A couple of days ago I asked, "Where are all the tunnels?" A reader points me to a recent Wall Street Journal article that includes this map: This makes things even more mysterious. The Journal's map is several years old, but it comes from the Israeli military and presumably they have more current ones. But ...continue reading "Answered: Where are all the tunnels?"

Americans are still spending: Retail and food spending was up slightly from last month, but it's just noise. Spending hasn't dropped, but it's been basically flat for the past three years.

How are people feeling about their personal finances? Income is one way of looking at this, but balance sheets are another. That is, how much wealth do households have? Are their savings accounts flush? Are they relatively free of debt? Net worth is the simplest way of looking at this: Since the start of the ...continue reading "Household balance sheets are doing pretty well these days"