Category Archives: economic news

economic news, local news

Signs portend driving misery

Driving south along Beauchamp Boulevard in Princeton, Texas, a day or so ago, a couple of orange signs jumped out at me as I entered the intersection with US Highway 380.

One sign had an arrow pointing west along 380 that said, “Road Work 2 miles.” The other sign had an arrow pointed east on 380 that said, “Road Work 6 miles.”

That’s when it hit me. The fun I have known would come to those of us who live in the nation’s fastest-growing city is about to commence. Actually, it won’t be fun. It’s going to be a headache, more than likely.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to widen 380 from four lanes to six lanes. However, to do that I was told by a former Princeton city manager that TxDOT had to narrow the right-of-way from four lanes to two lanes … one lane in each direction. Thus, the “fun” begins for anyone needing to get anywhere along 380.

All of this appears to be the prelim to work on a freeway bypass around Princeton that TxDOT has been pondering since before my bride and I moved here six years ago.

This is the price of progress. I am able to pay it. Not with any great enthusiasm. But I’ll get through it. The alternative? There isn’t any!

To which I only could mutter: Aaaack!

This is one of the costs I am paying by living in a community that is undergoing a growth explosion. It’s no “spurt.” Or any other term that suggests a smallish growth pattern.

economic news

What now, Mr. POTUS, with latest job figures?

Donald J. Trump went utterly ape-dookey over Bureau of Labor Stats figures a month ago that showed the U.S. added 77,000 jobs in July. What did he do? He fired the head of the BLS.

He said the former bean counter couldn’t be trusted to produce good numbers. So he brought in his own guy. What happened in August? The non-farm job payrolls added just 22,000 jobs during the month.

The mercurial charlatan who sits in the Oval Office might offer an excuse for the paltry numbers. Maybe he’ll let this latest guy go and blame him for turning on the guy who gave him a cushy job in DC.

Whatever, the drama just won’t end. It is boring me to tears.

economic news

Wishing POTUS well carries self interest

If we’re honest with ourselves, and most Americans fall into that category, we would carry a significant self-interest load while wishing the president of the United States success as he seeks to lead the country.

Where am I going with this? Here it comes.

I want Donald Trump to succeed in the office he will occupy for the next three years and some. I want him to succeed — particularly on economic issues — because it will have a direct impact more than likely on my retirement.

I’m long in the tooth, heading soon for my 76th birthday. I am semi-retired, working part time as a freelance reporter for a group of weekly newspapers in Collin County, Texas, where I have lived for six years. I also am drawing my retirement income from Social Security.

I have entrusted my retirement account to the care of a wise investment counselor who has taken good care of me, helped in large part by the performance of the stock market, which reacts almost daily to the whims of the president, be he a Democrat or Republican. The market did well during the terms of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but my support for their success went far beyond self-interest motivations.

So, when I declare my good wishes on the current POTUS, I do so with more than a twinge of self-interest. I detest the man for who he is, what he did before being elected to the only public office he ever has sought, for the lives he has destroyed, for the lies he has told, for his absolute lack of character, empathy and compassion.

I do wish him success as he seeks to manage the nation’s economic policy. It’s not because I have faith that his decisions will fatten my retirement investments … but because if he makes the right call — somehow! — good fortune will come my way.

business news, economic news

Tariffs come and go … and return

Donald J. Trump is in love with the word “tariff,” if only he understood what it means and who it penalizes.

He has just slapped another boost on the tariff he wants to charge India for goods imported into the United States. India now will pay a 50% tariff on everything that comes from that country into this one. So, if you want to buy a pashmina scarf from India, it will cost you basically half again the sticker price of the garment … which is pretty steep as it is!

That’s just one example of the inflationary pressure that awaits Americans who will pay for the tariffs Trump insists on leveling against the entire planet. He calls it payback for being “screwed” by the world’s nations. Good grief! You and I are going to pay for this nonsense. The weirdest part of all is that Trump is penalizing nations, such as Canada and Mexico, for engaging in trade practices that Trump himself worked out when he tossed aside the North American Free Trade Agreement. Go figure that one, ya know?

What does Trump have to pay? I don’t know nor do I care one damn bit. I am bitten by the “interest and apathy” bug.

All I can tell for certain is that when Trump gets done deciding how much of a tariff he wants to apply to this and/or that product or commodity, you and I are going to pay a hefty price for this numbskull’s obsession with a concept he doesn’t understand.

economic news, local news

Mixed feelings over airport expansion

How am I feeling these days as I learn about the expansion of McKinney National Airport just down the road a piece from where I live in Princeton?

My feelings are decidedly mixed. Although I tend to support the expansion as an economic driver for a region that already is undergoing a tremendous population explosion.

I shall explain myself.

Voters rejected a $200 million bond issue a couple of years ago to expand the airport, creating a third commercial air terminal in North Texas. It wasn’t even close, with 58% of the votes saying “hell no!” to the expansion. Had I been able to vote on the project, I would have voted in favor. Voters had their say.

Aha! But it wasn’t the final word. McKinney officials weren’t to be dissuaded from fulfilling their dream. They have broken ground on a smaller expansion, costing about $70 million. They’ll add an air terminal, expand parking and dress up the grounds to begin commercial air service sometime late next year. A low-cost airline already has signed up to begin servicing the airport to be known in aviation-speak as TKI.

It is mildly troubling to me that McKinney officials chose to ignore the voters’ wishes by proceeding with the airport project. Opponents cited the massive change such a project would bring to a community that they liked as it stands. There could be noise pollution, traffic congestion and all the various elements associated with rapid growth. At the groundbreaking ceremony, officials spoke affectionately about the growth that will come this way.

Princeton, where I have lived for six years, is the fastest-growing city in the United States. It currently is terribly underserved by commercial establishments. This morning, for example, I drove to McKinney to purchase a $6 part for my bathroom sink. I couldn’t find a store to serve my needs in Princeton. I am going to presume that economic expansion will bring those services and many others eventually to my city.

Indeed, the landscape in the greater McKinney/Princeton/Farmersville area is now slated for some monumental change once the airport expansion is complete. All of that produces a mixed bag of emotions for my neighbors and me. Thus, I can declare my feelings remain mixed as the airport construction is set to begin.

I am going to pray it goes well.

economic news

Make ’em pay their share

I feel this overwhelming desire to put this blogger’s current word of the day into perspective.

The word is “greed,” and it clearly has wrapped itself around the hearts and minds of mega-rich Americans over the issue of paying their fair share of taxes.

Donald Trump’s spending and taxation bill is now law and it contains those infamous tax breaks for the richest among us. Please consider the following …

If we demand that billionaires pay their fair share of taxes, they would still be richer than God. The going rate is about 38%. If someone were to pay that amount in taxes on $1 billion in gross income during a given calendar year, that still leaves the billionaire with more than $600 million in gross income for that year.

What could the government do with the money it collects from the billionaire? It could parcel it out to replenish food and housing assistance for Americans who are about to be deprived of such assistance. How about spending more money to arm Ukrainians with hardware to fight the invading Russian army?

We could do all of that … and the richest of the rich can still float around in their yachts and enjoy the decadent lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

economic news

Musk is gone; his ‘legacy’ lives on

Elon Musk went to work for the Donald Trump administration vowing to make a difference in the way the government operates.

Brother … he left his mark. None of it, as near as I can tell, will be the stuff of legend. That is, if you count the destruction he performed during his time leading that idiotic Department of Government Efficiency.

He has to rescue his car company now. Its value has tanked. But when you’re the richest man on Earth, he can afford to lose a few trillion dollars and still be filthy rich.

I have been trying to wrap my noggin around what this moron accomplished during his time leading DOGE. He said he would slash trillions of wasteful dollars. He didn’t come close. He managed to piss off just about everyone with whom he came in contact, including — as I understand it — Donald John Trump. He boasted about taking a chainsaw to government agencies he determined were corrupt.

I will accept the idea that there exists plenty of corruption with the federal government. But you don’t dismiss tens of thousands of public servants who are there to do a job for the public they serve … and expect the department to miraculously cleanse itself.

Musk is now back in civilan life. He’ll return to making cars, launching space ships and presumably trying to recover the fortune he lost while torching the federal government. Truth be told, the richest man on Earth had no business making decisions on government programs that deliver essential services to those of us who need them just to make it through the day.

I just don’t know — nor will I ever understand — why Trump brought this clown into his sh**show in the first place.

business news, economic news

It’s called “check and balance,’ Mr. POTUS

The U.S. Court of International Trade has delivered a lesson on check and balance to the president of the United States … if only he knew what it means.

A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that Donald Trump overstepped his constitutional authority by issuing across the board reciprocal tariffs on the entire world. The ruling effectively ends — for now, at least — the idiotic trade war that Trump launched against this nation’s strongest trading partners and allies.

This really shouldn’t matter, given what the founders intended when they created a federal judiciary, but it’s worth noting nevertheless. One of the judges is a Barack Obama appointee, another one was nominated by Ronald Reagan, the third was selected by — you ready? — Donald Trump.

They spoke with one voice on this notion that Trump has no authority to act unilaterally by invoking these moronic tariffs. Trump has vowed to appeal the ruling. No surprise. It is his right to do so.

He keeps losing these court fights, yet he still claims to be a “winner.”

He’s not! Trump is a big-league loser.

economic news, national news

GOP is finding some backbone?

Lo and behold, great day in the morning and whatever exclanation you can recall! Republicans in Congress might have discovered their backbones and are stiffening them in a fight against Donaldl J. Trump and his “big, beautiful” tax and budget bill.

What has happened to these men and women? They have rediscovered the mantra their forebears used to recite to beat the daylights out of their Democratic opponents, which is that budget deficits and spiraling national debt are unsustainable.

U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul have just signed on as “no” votes for Trump’s bill. It is looking for all the world as if the bill might be doomed. There are a few others who’ve also joined with their Democratic colleagues in opposing the legislation.

There’s a certain irony, of course, in Democrats opposing the bill on the grounds of deficit and debt expansion. Democrats used to scoff at GOP concerns over the deficit. Republicans led by Ronald Reagan blasted Democrats to smithereens because during the 1980 fiscal year, Democrats were calling for a deficit — get ready for it — of $43 billion! That amount today would hardly amount to anything.

The annual budget deficit is now in the trillions of dollars. The national debt has grown more under the Trump administration than during any other administration in U.S. history.

It is sounding to me as if congressional Republicans are getting the hint, based on their town halls and the ire they are hearing from constituents, that Trump’s notions aren’t worth backing.

What do you know about any of it?

economic news

Where’s the love for Biden?

3 Comments

Let me get this straight: The stock market tanks and Donald Trump blames former President Biden for it.

The market then rallies big time … and Trump is silent.

No love for Biden. Why is that? Does the former president deserve to be showered with praise? No. Not really.

The point, though, is that Trump’s hair-trigger is far too quick to dish out criticism while his so-called kinder side just cannot be motivated to hand out a word of praise.

He’s a weirdo, man.