“I tried to stop”. Those apparently were the last words of the man an ICE agent executed without cause in Maine yesterday.

So much for freedom of navigation in international waters, one of the foundations of international trade, which incidentally is guaranteed under international law. Does Trump actually ask for advice before making these pronouncements, or is it all an impulsive reaction to what his gut tells him?

Climate change is here and Europe is bearing the brunt of it. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/w...

The Iranian War is a total cluster fuck. While I’m no fan of John Bolton, his article explains very well why there is no resolution in sight under current policy to this expensive farce. www.wsj.com/opinion/iran...

The Nordic museum in Ballard, Seattle, this afternoon. I was the only person in the room rooting for England. Bit tricky when England won. I exited silently through a side door.

I don’t think people grasp how serious the macroeconomic consequences of population decline are. We could moderate the impact in the US by embracing immigration, but the current administration is doing exactly the opposite 1/3. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/o...

We've long said that when the government claims it needs to investigate journalists to protect national security, it really means its own reputational security. This is as clear an example as you can get.

Contrary to his claims, Trump’s import tariffs are destroying jobs in US auto manufacturing. www.wsj.com/opinion/how-...

If a Democratic President did this, we would never hear the end of it. Where is the outrage, the 24 hour a day drum beat on cable news, the Congressional investigation, the impeachment proceeding? Have we become so use to his naked corruption that we just shrug and move on?

The Art of the Scam. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/u...

Your President, scammer in chief. www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

If you want to understand how the right wing bullshit machine works, take the time to watch Kate Starbird’s faculty lecture at the University of Washington. youtu.be/rjiGbgRAhJo

I grew up near the Ffestiniog pump storage power station in iWales. Remember touring it on a school trip. Epic technology. Terrific complement to renewables. UK now has three more plants under construction. Should be building these in the U.S. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The Chinese are literally decades ahead in EV technology. Good job we don’t have a free market in auto trade.

Apparently the bond market recognizes what many equity “investors” didn’t, that the Space X IPO was a massive Ponzi scheme 1/2 . www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts

With Iran closing the strait of Hormuz again this morning, it could get very rough in the global oil market. Up until now, prices have been held down by running down strategic reserves, but we may be approaching the limit to that.

A fitting metaphor for the entire Administration.

Well this is interesting……the names exposed are predominantly powerful, rich, right wing, white men. Draw your own conclusions from that, but it looks like a circle jerk to me. www.wired.com/story/leak-e...

Who knows if there will be a final agreement. But if there is, two things will be true at the same time: a) It's essentially surrender to Iran. b) We should be glad about it, because every day this insane, illegal war continues, we get weaker. 1/ Let me explain.

The smell of defeat. “We can’t be sure of the terms of the so-called Memorandum of Understanding, because they haven’t been published. But the fact that the Iranians are gloating, while Israelis are horrified, strongly suggests that isn’t the case”. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Narcissists will always make everything about them….. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

There’s lots of negative sentiment about Elon Musk’s extraordinary wealth. I get it, but much of that wealth is based not on real cash generating assets, but on fantasies about the future that are unlikely to occur. When investors wake up to the reality, much of that wealth will vaporize.

Interesting that it’s a player with birthright citizenship that led the US to victory in its World Cup opener.

I was told this was a moderate hike.

The Appeals Court is economically illiterate. Section 122 tariffs were designed to address balance of payments problems in an era of fixed exchanges rates. We have had floating exchange rates for the last 50 years. We do not have a balance of payments problem. 1/3 stocks.apple.com/APNufOFflQtG...

Nails it.

Short answer, hell no! www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin...

The Space X IPO is this week. The asking price values the company at $1.75 trillion. The offering is oversubscribed. This for a company with $18.7 billion in revenues that lost $4 billion last year. No rational model supports this valuation, but we don’t live in a rational world. Tulip bubble.

This post is out of date. Musk and his bankers are now shooting for a $1.77 trillion valuation and they are making it easier for retail investors (ie easy marks) to buy into the IPO. So the valuation is now over 90x Space X revenues - way into the stratosphere!!

Incidentally, the most well documented use of forced labor is in the production of cobalt by unlicensed mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and of course, the US is a major importer of cobalt produced in the DRC. .

Here we go again. If forced labor is such a big issue in international trade, why did it take the Administration so long to discover this? More likely, its a paper thin rationale constructed to satisfy Trumps tariff desires. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

The shape of things to come. Japan is leading the world into population decline. There are some pretty significant economic consequences of this, including how to manage welfare payments to an aging population when the base of taxpayers is shrinking. www.seattletimes.com/nation-world...

This guy has zero national security experience, I mean absolutely nothing, but he is a sycophant who will do Trump’s bidding, so perfect choice I guess. I hope the Senate 86s this pick. www.seattletimes.com/business/tru...

Here we go again. Trump is proposing to place a 25% tariff on a wide range of imports from Brazil as a response to alleged “unfair trade practices”. The US runs a persistent trade surplus with Brazil! www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/b...

The Trump Administration is still trying to sell the dumb fiction that foreigners pay import tariffs on the goods they sell to the US. For the thousandth time, it’s the importers of record that pay, typically American entities. How stupid do they think the American public is?

My homeland is leading the world right now.

We have *never* before seen consumer sentiment this low.

Space X had revenues of $18.7 billion last year and lost $4.9 billion, and yet Musk and his bankers are touting an IPO valuation of $1.5 trillion. This seems beyond absurd, but what do I know, I’m just an economist. Now if I was a bullshitter…. www.wsj.com/business/spa...

Looking West from Seattle after sunset tonight, the Moon, Jupiter and Venus in alingnment.

No it isn’t, Jeff. Trump’s second term policies have been more chaotic, impulsive, and dangerous than ever. www.seattletimes.com/business/ama...

We are up shit creek without a paddle, and no one in Government seems to care.

The Iran war has been very good for US oil producers, and for Russia. As far as the Administration is concern, those of you whining about inflation can fuck off, since the rich are getting richer, which is what matters to Trump Inc. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/b...

This is nothing other than massive corruption by the President . www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Guess the summit went well…..for the Chinese at least.

Another example of the unintended consequences of Trump’s tariffs. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...

Nice summary of the economic irrationality of the Trump Administration’s latest tariff strategy (which this economically illiterate administration is hoping to use to replace the 10% global tariff that was ruled illegal last week). www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...