Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 13. Disassociation.

December 12, 2025

From the Casper Star Tribune.

The Democratic bill to extend the credits failed.

Senate blocks Obamacare tax subsidy extension, all but ensuring spikes for Wyoming consumers: Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming called tax subsidy extension a “disaster” and lobbied for a Republican health savings account proposal that also failed.

So did a moronic Republic bill for health savings accounts. That was no sort of plan.

The evidence is too well established to ignore.  A national health care system needs to be established and frankly it would not be that difficult.  It'll be interesting to see if this brings it about, as the populist contingent that opposes it, including here in the state, is about to lose its insurance.  This is, quite frankly, a disaster.

It's a disaster that the GOP hopes will kill off the AHCA and there really isn't any serious proposals to replace it. They want it dead, as it's "socialism", even though it isn't.  The Health Savings Account concept was just pablum and everyone is well aware that it'd achieve nothing at all.

Which brings me back to this point.  The difference between right wing populism and left wing populism is nearly non existent.  The ox that will end up being gored here is that of the street level right wing populist, who can be, and in some instances was, left wing populist.  

Speaking of average folks:

Also from the CST.

December 13, 2025

December 14, 2025

The Federal government terminated the collective bargaining status for the union that covers TSA officers, the American Federation of Government Employees, as to TAS officers.

The union, which covers the employees of other agencies as well, has over 300,000 members, probably none of whom will caste a vote for the GOP next year.

We also have Chuck Gray sounding like a broken record:

Chuck Gray: I Will Continue To Fight Woke Wind Energy Projects

Gray's in a bit of a spot as he'd hoped to use the Secretary of State's office as a springboard to something else.  It's not looking like that will pay off, as Bill Barlow is clearly in the lead for the Governor's office and Gray can't think of anything to say that doesn't sound like it's from the junior edition of the MAGA playlist, which is rapidly becoming a set of moly oldies.  To make matters worse for him, he's now so acclimated to absurd name calling that he can't stop it, as in:

We should be deeply troubled by the efforts of Gov. Gordon and other insider politicians to jam through woke wind projects that violate so many of our core principles as Wyomingites. 

"Woke wind projects"?  

I know what he means, of course, which is that as the Federal Government backed wind under Biden, and as global warming is a fib, and as Joe Biden is responsible for all of the ills in society, it's the dreaded evil "woke".  Gray has used this sort of rhetoric so often, however, that if a cafe burns his toast I'm sure that he reflexively calls the short order cook a liberal, let wing woke Marxist.

Gray's career in Wyoming politics is probably shot.  Barlow will get the Governor's office, Hageman won't run for it as she knows that, so she'll keep her office, Lummis is the Wyoming sphinx, rarely saying anything, and she'll keep her office.  Gray will be lucky if he doesn't draw opposition and lose his.

On wind, all the fossil fuel true believers were dead set against it but now oil is hovering around $60.00 and it appears that the Federal Government might be pushing to depress the price.  A well placed GOP politician told me the other day that the administration wants it at $30.00/bbl next year, which would wipe out domestic production and throw Wyoming into an oilfield depression.

On a different note:  

Cattle Ranchers Revive Nebraska Town With Bold Producer-Owned Beef Plant

December 16, 2025

US payrolls fell by 105,000 people in October, and then rebounded to add 64,000 in November.

Sort of a mixed message there, assuming that such figures coming out of the US government are trustworthy.

Cont:

Well, apparently those who are schooled in this kind of data view this as a pretty negative jobs report.  The economy is cooling, and the unemployment rate is up.

Related threads:

Seemingly missed in the story of prices at the pump being down is that the rig count is down too. And the coming economic storm in Wyoming.

Labels: Coal, deflation, Economics, Ignorance, OPEC, Petroleum, Russo Ukrainian War, Taxes, trends, Venezuela, Wyoming Freedom Caucus

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 12. Don't look . . . everything's just fine edition.

Labels: Agriculture, Economics, Food, Health, Predictions, technology, Technology is ruining everything, Wyoming (Gillette), Wyoming Business Council, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Seemingly missed in the story of prices at the pump being down is that the rig count is down too. And the coming economic storm in Wyoming.

Down 6.32% compared to this time last year, which means that less petroleum exploration is going on.

Presidents seem to always want to take the credit for the price of petroleum going down.  They also eschew taking the blame, and correctly at that, when the price goes up.  But because Americans are economic ignoramuses, this story repeats again and again.

Wyomingites tend to follow the price of petroleum as it directly correlates to jobs in the state.  The price must be over $58.00/bbl for Wyoming petroleum oil to break even, and really has to be over $62.00/bbl for it to be profitable.

Today it's at $55.95 for WTI and $59.72 for Brent.

Oh oh.

That doesn't seem to have made the news, but it has started to impact the field.

Part of the reason that it is going down is that investors are worried about the Trump buffoonery in Ukraine, where he's siding with the Russians, and because the US has taken up seizing Venezuelan ships carrying oil.  The latter might actually be justified for reasons having nothing to do with the murdering of drug boat crews, and it's interesting to note that the ship that was seized was seized by the Coast Guard, not the Navy which is relying on the Nuremberg defense for its actions in spite of the Government war manual actually referencing the murder of distressed crews as against the laws of war.  On the latter, Americans have become so psychologically fragile since the Vietnam War that we can be assured former sailors will be reporting that they have PTSD due to their role as hitmen in a few years, but that's another topic.  So, basically, Trump can take some credit for lower prices, but it's basically due to international investors figuring he's a rogue bufador, which he is.

Trump getting out his big box of GI Joes isn't the only reason, however.  Lots of refineries completed turnarounds, which are scheduled years in advance, and OPEC has an oil glut, things that would be causing Democrats to claim that Harris had lowered the price of oil, had things worked out differently.

So here's the thing.  How long will this slide go, and how low will it go?

Rumors, and that's what they are, are circulating that there's hopes that oil will go down to $30/bbl.  I  don't see how that can happen, absent an economic depression, and if that did occur, that's exactly what would occur in Wyoming.

For that matter, if oil stays this low, that's what's going to happen here.  

I wonder if all the MAGA loyalist here will be cheering in that event?

If oil stays down around $55/bbl for about three months, the oil economy in Wyoming will be very badly damaged.  Natural gas will prop some of it up, of course, and we really are more a natural gas explorating state now rather than a crude oil one. Still, crude is the rig count driver.

And if that happens, all the alternative energy projects which existed under the Biden Administration are drying up, the attack on them lead by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and people like Chuck Gray.  Coal prices are up, but not so much that anyone ought to be deluded enough to thinking that there's going to be a second era of King Coal.   Meanwhile, the Freedom Caucus is gutting the state's ability to fund anything.

And that is probably where we should close.  The Freedom Caucus basically would like the entire US to be a variant of 1930s Appalachia.  If this trend continues, we may get to be.

Sunday, December 16, 1945. Sinclair boosts wages.

Sinclair Oil Corporation ended a wage dispute by agreeing to grant an 18% pay increase with a 40-hour week to the Oil Workers International union.

Sinclair retains a major presence in Wyoming, with a town where it has an oil refinery named after it.  In 1945, interestingly, it was a New York Corporation, although its registered as a Wyoming corporation now.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe died by suicide.   He'd been a major figure in Japan as it marched towards war and was due to begin legal proceedings for war crimes the following day.

Last edition:

Friday, December 14, 1945. Tragedy and ethnic Germans, the LDS and conscription.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Commentary, Conscription, Disaster, Displaced Persons, Ethnicities, German, Government, Military, Mormon, National Guard, Poland, religion, Standards, Utah, World War Two

Eating like an oilfield worker.

NIMBY? State Board of Land Commissioners denies Prism Logistics lease renewal on Casper Mountain and other ponderings.

This is an interesting story.

State Board of Land Commissioners denies Prism Logistics lease renewal on Casper Mountain

I'm glad this isn't going forward.  It shouldn't, because of where it's located.

But because of where its located is where it drew attention.

In Natrona County, over the past year, residents have risen up in opposition to this gravel mine, a proposed solar farm in the western end of the county, and a proposed nuclear generator manufacturing facility north of Casper.  In Gillette there's some sort of controversy going on over some sort of nuclear facility.  And there's a big debate on a wind farm in Laramie County.

It's hard to know what to make of all of this.

What is clear is that local politicians respond to the controversies.  I'm sure if you asked any one of the Natrona  County Commissioners if they supported energy, they would say yes.  And they'd all say they support mining.  But when the votes come, they're voting like they're members of Greenpeace. 

And one local legislature says that his nickname is now "No nuke" for his opposition to the nuclear generator facility.

Nuclear energy is the safest and most efficient form of power generation we have, and until the mysteries of fission are unlocked, if ever, it'll continue to be.  In a rational world we'd have a five year plan to replace every coal burning plant in the country with nuclear power.

Indeed, going one step further, we'd mandate the retirement of petroleum fueled everything in that time frame, or perhaps ten years.

The reason we don't is because, for the most part, even though we're the smartest animal on the planet, we're not anywhere near as smart as we like to think we are.  If we were, we'd make decisions based on logic.  Most people don't.  Most people make decisions based on emotion.

It's easy to understand why a person would emotionally resent a gravel pit in their backyard, more or less, or solar panels taking up acres of land.  The same with windmills.  Nuclear? Well, the opposition to nuclear is due to our having used the bomb to murder thousands of Japanese civilians.  It's stuck with us and we fear it, as that was our first use of it.  People will tell you they are worried about contamination and the like. Bah.  It's Hiroshima and Nagasaki they're worried about, even though that can't happen.

I'm old enough to remember when we had open pit uranium mining in Wyoming.  In the early 1980s I knew a few guys who worked out at the Shirley Basin mine site, including one who lived in the little, now abandoned, town of Shirley Basin.  I also knew some who lived and worked in Jeffrey City, where they worked in uranium mines.  When they closed down, the state was distraught.

Now it seems nobody remembers that, and the thought of anything nuclear drives people into fits of despair.

I think a lot of it is fear of change.

That in fact explains a lot about populism  And it explains why the current heavily right wing populist in Natrona County are adamantly against something that the populists in Washington D.C. reading Uglier Home and Paved Garden are for.

Change, we're told, is inevitable.  If it is, it's because we will it so, much of it through our absolute laziness.  We want our lives to be easier and more convenient just for us, but at the same time we want things to stay the way they are.

Which for a person like me, whose an introverted, introspective, agrarian, is particularly amusing in some ways.

I really hate change, myself, and I also want things to be the way they were.  But not five or ten years ago, like so many of the people who protest on these matters.  Indeed, many are quite new imports.

Victor Colorado, 1900.  One of these houses was my great grandparents'.

I'd like them to be like they were in 1879 when my family first arrived in this region. . . or even earlier if possible.  I'd settle for 1963, when I personally arrived.

I won't get those wishes.

I will note, however, a nuclear powered America might look more like American in 1879 than the one of 2025 does.  As I look out at all the protests I'm struck by how many people in Wyoming are absolutely wedded to the oil and gas industry.  It wasn't always so.

Back in the 1960s (I have a long memory) a lot of locals remained pretty skeptical about the oil and gas industry, in part because the state had recently been shafted for its reliance upon petroleum.  People loved it again in the 1970s but when that boom collapsed people swore to never be reliant upon it again.

We apparently got over that.

Now we fear what we know to be true.  Petroleum and coal won't last forever.  The dirty little secret of the petroleum industry in Wyoming anymore is that drilling is really for gas far more than petroleum oil.  Petroleum is on the way out, like it or not, and the United States is an expensive oil and gas province to drill in.  Absent actually prohibiting its import, which I wouldn't put past Donald Trump, Saudi petroleum will always be cheaper.  For that matter, Russian petroleum will always be as well and thinking you can really prohibit India China from importing it is absolute folly.  Coal, which we've dealt with extensively, in a slow but accelerating death spiral.

The sort of imaginary world so many in MAGA wish to return to.  Big powerful cars, driven by guys of course, but at the same time don't want to return to, as living without as much as these people did, compared to us, would be uncomfortable.

Donald Trump may say "drill baby drill", and put thousands of acres up for coal leasing, but Trump in many ways is the last dying gasp of of the 1950s.

And the 50s of our imaginations never existed.  But we fear that it didn't, as we fear the thought that our oil stained hands will reach the point where we'll have to grab a bar of Lava soap and scrub it off, forever.  The jobs will go away.

Funny thing is, from time to time, there's been serious proposals to put in something related to local agriculture, which was here in the beginning of our statehood, and still is.  Wyoming hadn't really supported a big ag project since the 1930s, and indeed local municipalities oppose things related to agriculture.  It's short sighted.

But then, perhaps I'm romantic about for various reasons that recent migrants to the state don't share.

Friday, September 26, 1975. Petroleum and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Congress, at President Ford's request, extended price controls on petroleum for fifty days.

I reported the Rocky Horror Picture Show as debuting yesterday, but apparently it was today.  A cult classic today, it's theater run was not a success.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 25, 1975. Three Days of the Condor and Oliver Sipple.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1975 at the movies, actors and actresses, Central Intelligence Agency, Crime, Gerald Ford, Heroes, homosexuality, Movies

The Cost Meter. A Trade War Index.

April 5, 2025

Petroleum:  $61.78/bbl (Wyoming crude become unecomic at $59.00/bbl).

Coal:  Coal 99.40/ton

Coffee (USd/Lbs) 372.60.

Levis at Penny's:  $55.65.

April 7, 2025

Petroleum:  60.80/bbl.

One of Trump's minions cited this, fwiw, as evidence that inflation isn't kicking in and things are fine.  On the contrary, the price of petroleum is dropping on fears of a recession.  A recession reduces oil consumption.

Indeed, because of the bizarre nature of tariffs, trading prices on some things in general may go down, while the price rises for Americans.

April 8, 2025

From the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

Updated 1 day ago

U.S. Oil Prices Fall Below $60 a Barrel

By

WSJ Staff

Oil prices kept falling early Monday; investors fear a trade war will clobber the global economy and sink demand for crude oil.

U.S. crude futures dropped more than 4% to below $59 a barrel, after falling 14% over two sessions to end last week.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, also fell more than 4%.

If prices remain near $60 a barrel for long, American frackers will likely slow drilling and will have to re-evaluate their spending levels for the remainder of the year and in 2026.

It's about $61/bbl this mooring.

cont: 

$58.10. Below marketability in Wyoming.

April 9, 2025

Oil opening this morning:

56.03

April 10, 2025

Despite the strong relief rally on Wednesday, following President Trump’s 90-day pause of tariff hikes on most countries except China, the U.S. benchmark oil price is now lower than the breakeven for the shale industry to profitably drill a new well.

 OilPrice.com

West Texas is $59.16/bbl.

April 11, 2025

U.S. reached a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen. 

Oil is opening at 60.10/bbl.

May 2, 2025

Oil and Natural Gas.

WTI Crude 58.57 -0.67 -1.13%

Brent Crude 61.49 -0.64 -1.03%

Murban Crude 61.41 -0.93 -1.49%

Natural Gas 3.502 +0.023 +0.66%

A note, below $59.00, US crude doesn't move.

The inflation rate right now is 2.39% with the tariffs about to hit.

May 6, 2025

WTI Crude • 58.28 +1.15 +2.01%

Brent Crude •  61.39 +1.16 +1.93%

Murban Crude • 62.20 +2.24 +3.74%

Natural Gas • 3.594 +0.044 +1.24%

Coal:  98.50/ton

Coffee:  388.45

Levis:  $55.65.

May 16, 2025

WTI Crude 61.95 +0.33 +0.54%

Brent Crude 64.88 +0.35 +0.54%

Natural Gas 3.345 -0.017 -0.51%

Coal:  99.00/ton

Coffee (USd/Lbs) 373.79

August 27, 2025

A pound of ground roast coffee now averages $8.41, up 33% from last year, according to the New York Times.

WTI Crude:  $63.91/bbl.

Brent Crude:  $66.79/bbl.

Coal:  $99.75/ton.

Gee. . . doesn't seem like prices are going down.

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’: U.S. Rep. Hageman's comment didn't go over well in Pinedale, where residents struggled for years to clean up health-threatening pollution from oil and gas drilling.

Pinedale calls itself the "Icebox of the Nation" and the introduction of oil and gas operations near it are relatively new.  Given both of those, it clearly didn't drink the GOP Koolaide on global warming being a fib.

Hageman has so far received rough crewed treatment in Pinedale, Rock Springs, and Laramie. I suspect she would in Casper as well.  I also suspect she might want to start thinking about selling her house in D.C. and looking to move back to her brother's ranch, as she may be out of work next year. 

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 8. The imaginary lost world edition (and also something about the color of pots and kettles).

Popular traditionalist meme with some truth to it, but it requires more thought than this.  Also, this pertains more to the 50s and 60s, than it does to eras before

Nostalgia combines regularly with manifest respectability to give credence to old error as opposed to new truth. 

John Kenneth Galbraith.

June 17, 2025.

Headline in the Tribune:

Trump cancels $49M Wyoming coal carbon capture project

And:

New products take backseat amid Trump tariffs

And:

Companies work to overcome staff incivility

President Trump issued an executive order allowing Nippon Steel to purchase U.S. Steel, something that had been held up by President Biden.

Eh?  Isn't this the opposite of economic nationalism as espoused by the far right.

Yes, it is.

Part of the deal gives the U.S. a "Golden Share', which according to Trump funcationary Howard Lutnick, does the following:

This perpetual Golden Share prevents any of the following from occurring without the consent of the President of the United States or his designee:

• Relocate U.S. Steel’s headquarters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• Redomicile outside the United States

• Change the name of the company from U.S. Steel

• Reduce, waive, or delay the $14 billion of Near-Term investments into U.S. Steel

• Transfer production or jobs outside the United States

• Close or idle plants before certain timeframes other than normal course temporary idling for safety, upgrades, etc.

• Other protections regarding employee salaries, anti-dumping pricing, raw materials and sourcing outside the U.S., acquisitions, and more.

We'd first not that nothing is "perpetual".

Next, isn't this Socialism?

Sort of, yes.  It's also somewhat reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt's idea, regarded as radical then and now, to give shares to US corporations that grew over a certain size, and regulate them as public utilities.

Any way its looked at, this is a radical position for the Republican Party and the US to take in general.  It's amazing that there hasn't been objections to it, let alone by the GOP which up until Trump didn't approve of economic protectionism or anything that could be suggested to be Socialist.

Indeed, even now, Trumpites like to accuse people of being Socialist.  

Hmmm. . . 

June 21, 2025

Man who says he can move TikTok to South Dakota is a bust in Wyoming politics: Reid Rasner lost by 43 points in a U.S. Senate race and has offered few details in support of his multibillion-dollar bid, but has won over the Rushmore State’s governor.

June 26, 2025

Wyoming oil positioned to weather Middle East conflict, analysts say: Nation's soaring oil and natural gas production may buffer energy prices if Israel-Iran conflict disrupts global supplies, some industry officials predict.

U.S. Ballistics plans on opening an artillery projectile plant in Cody. 

cont:

The Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to the chamber’s procedural rules.

June 28, 2025

The US broke off tariff negotiations with Canada, the US's largest trading partner.

Aluminium costs are pressing beverage manufacturers.

June 29, 2025

The Senate voted to take up The Big Ugly, which doesn't mean that it's passed.

For the sake of the country, it should not pass, but it likely will. 

Elon is taking note of the impact, which won't please his former ally.

June 30, 2025

CBO on The Big Ugly, as reported by the CST.

CBO PROJECTS TRUMP BILL WILL RACK UP DEBT

Where are those GOP fiscal conservatives?

And also:

Office estimates plan would add $3.3T over next decade

Well, given their ages, Donald Trump, Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso will likely be pushing up daisies by that time.  So, if its good for the old Boomers, that's all that really matters, right?

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina came out in opposition of the Big Ugly.  He was immediately threatened with being "primaried" by the illegal occupant of the Oval Office, but then announced he won't be running anyway, which has the impact of positioning this office for a Democratic occupant.

Going into 26, the Republicans are in real trouble in the House, and they're starting to get into trouble in the Senate.

Canada eliminated its digital services tax.

cont:

Via Reddit, not sure of the source, posting so it can be see.

PTC is the renewable electricity production tax credit, a per kilowatt-hour (kWh) federal tax credit included in the U.S. tax code for electricity generated by qualified renewable energy resources. 

cont:

July 1, 2025

At this point, Dr. John lacks any credibility on pretty much anything, but here's his statement.

Sen. Barrasso, Also A Medical Doctor, Defends Medicaid Changes In Budget Bill

The article notes:

As a doctor in Wyoming for over 20 years, I’ve cared for Medicaid patients my entire career. I understand Medicaid’s importance for the people it is intended to serve. I have also seen its shortcomings.

Thanks to Wyoming being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Medicaid reforms included in the bill are unlikely to negatively impact our state. Wyoming’s policies are already aligned with a majority of the Medicaid provisions. This includes work requirements for all able-bodied adults enrolled in Medicaid.

Medicaid was established to help children, pregnant women, seniors and the disabled. We need to make sure that high-quality care is accessible and reliable to those who qualify for Medicaid. This bill does that.

Dr. John also supported Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for his current position even though he no doubt privately believes Kennedy is a quack.  And he hid under his desk for the most part during the recent public lands issue.  Reaction to this story brought out a lot of anger by people remembering that, as it should. 

Eight Republican Senators are currently holding out against The Big Ugly.

The GOP leadership has been struggling with getting the Big Ugly passed in general, and in meeting King Donald's arbitrary July 4 deadline.  Now the monarch has indicated he has sort of a "m'eh" view on the deadline and he doesn't want things cut too deeply, which must be causing Grover Norquist fits.

cont:

The Big Ugly passed the Senate with J.D. Vance casting the tie breaking vote.

Now its back to the House where the House Freedom Caucus has already criticized it due to its increasing the deficit.

The most amusing vote on the Senate side was Lisa Murkowski, who voted for it, but indicated she was agonized by the whole thing. That seems to be Murkowski's theme.  If the Senate proposed a vote to run over kittens, she'd vote for it, but note that the whole thing really bothered her.

Murkowski:

My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we're not there yet.

Gutless. 

July 2, 2025

The US dollar suffered its worst first-half decline in more than 50 years due to tariff concerns.

Lisa Murkowski is taking a lot of flak for selling her vote for changes to the Big Ugly that benefitted certain constituents in Alaska, including whalers, while she acknowledges the Big Ugly is ugly.  She seems utterly surprised that she's now the subject of outright deserved contempt.

Murkowski was just playing politics the old fashioned way, trading her vote for something she thinks her constituents needed, while still not liking the bill.  It's the way things are done, in normal times, which these are not.

Murkowski is 68 years old, which I'll mention as the Big Hugly contains tax breaks for seniors.

Well of course it does.  

Old Boomers Never Die

They control away. . . *

Footnotes:

*From Old Soldiers Never Die.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 7 and Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 91st Edition. Reality is hard.

Labels: Donald Trump, Economics, Immigration, law, Nostalgia, Populism, Taxes, The Second Trump Administration

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 6. “Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.”

Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.

The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2025.

May 14, 2025

Wyoming Delegation Not Supportive Of Trump's Idea Of Tax Hike For The Rich

So Barrasso and Lummis separate from Trump on this?

Neither one of them are actually Trump supporters in terms of their personal beliefs, but have adopted his views for political survival in Wyoming, which is fanatically pro Trump.  Everyone is well aware that the budget is in a crisis stage and at some point soon the US needs to have a balanced budget. That can only be done through raising taxes, and they know it.

Additionally, taxing the wealthy will not hurt the economy, and everyone knows that.  Tax rates for the wealthy were much higher in prior decades with no ill effect on the economy.

A matter of critical interest.

Wyoming Is The Second Most Expensive State For Beer Lovers

And one Wyomingites just won't believe

Reaction To Trump Tariffs Helps Push Wyoming Oil Prices To Four-Year Low

This is an absolute fact, but if you follow the story on Facebook, a lot of Wyomingites just won't believe it. That would mean Trump is hurting the local economy, and they can't accept that. . . at least not yet.

Oil is at $62.02/bbl this morning.

May 15, 2025

Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins. 

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.

Oil is at $61.60/bbl.

May 17, 2025

Thanks to Republican mishandling of the economy, specifically increasing debt, Moody's downgraded the economy from Aaa to Aa1.

The GOP can't seem to grasp that you actually have to pay for the government.

New Jersey transit engineers are on strike.

Trump's "Big Beautiful Budget Bill", which would add $4T in debt, failed 16-21 in the House Budget Committee.

The irony is that those voting against it want more spending cuts, but only increased taxes will address this developing crisis.

Let's put this in bold, as people just don't seem to grasp it.

THE UNITED STATES CAN'T "CUT" ITS WAY OUT OF ITS BUDGET CRISIS.  IT MUST RAISE TAXES.

Cont:

It's really time to stop calling Trump a businessman:

He's a real estate developer. Clearly he's otherwise a business illiterate.

May 19, 2025

The Trump deficit expanding budget bill made it out of committee on a 17-16 vote with those who were to vote no, voting present.

This bill will be a disaster for already an already irresponsible Federal government.  Taxes need to be raised on income, particularly upper incomes to make the budget balance and this insanity cease.

May 22, 2025

The House of Representatives passed by a margin of one a funding bill that will swell the deficit disastrously while making cuts in Medicaid and food stamp while adding to border security.  Taxes will be cut, when they should be raised, and will irrationally be eliminated on tips and overtime.

Trump, who speaks oddly at best, has called this his "big beautiful tax bill"

Walmart is cutting 1,500 corporate jobs.

The stock market is crashing because of the bad tax bill. The bond market is flat.

West Texas crude is back down to $60.96.

Cont:

The "tip" exemption appears to be for "cash tips".

FWIW, bar tenders tend to get cash tips, but restaurant workers less and less.  FWIW, cash tips are notoriously underreported anyway, as they're impossible to keep track of.

May 23, 2025

Hageman’s Budget Vote Critical As House Passes One Big Beautiful Act 215-214

The next one is interesting:

Barrasso Cheers Vote To Kill California Mandate To ‘Force-Feed’ EVs On Everyone

Republicans are for state's rights, except when the state exercises the right to do something they don't like.

Likewise, the GOP is for local control, but really isn't.

At Lusk Town Meeting, Locals Say Wind Projects Have Ended Friendships

Developer Of Controversial Casper Gravel Mine Wants To Renew State Leases

Trump:

What does the "thank you for our attention to this matter" intend to do?

May 29, 2025

Federal trade court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, saying he overstepped authority

That the power wasn't there was obvious.  Now the question is whether the Trump administration will obey the Court.

May 30, 2025

An appeals court is allowing the tariffs to be collected while the matter is on appeal, which is a poor ruling.

June 2, 2025

Well, of course. . . 

R&D job postings down 18% since president took office

From the same article, about the impact on the economy:

A 25% cut ultimately would reduce gross domestic product by an amount similar to the decline seen during the Great Recession, they said.

cont:

“Was it all bullshit?"

Donald Trump, reportedly, about Musk's promise to cut $1B from the government spending.

That anyone could seriously think that $1B could be cut from the discretionary budget demonstrates that the person has no grasp on the Federal budget whatsoever.

June 3, 2025

Elon Musk on the "Big Beautiful Bill".

It is an abomination, but so was the work that Musk was doing:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist 85th Edition. DOGE dipshittery and Clinton efficiency.

June 4, 2025

Oh my. The CBO predicts Trump's Big Ugly Bill will cut taxes by $3.7T and raise the deficit by $2.4T. It's pretty obvious what Congress should do. A lot of House members are suddenly declaring they didn't read the bill.  That's a pretty good sign its in trouble.  Speaker Johnson claims the magic of supply side economics, which hasn't been dragged out since the Reagan years, will make it all okay. Elon Musk and the Trumpites are now in a full fledged word war with each other. Trump is threatening to hike steel and aluminum tariffs 50%. June 5, 2025 The Wind River Job Corps in Riverton, was ordered to "pause" its activities in anticipation of getting the axe from Congress. cont: Proctor and Gamble is laying off 7,000 employees. cont: June 12, 2025 The conclusion of negotiations with China leaves tariffs on that country at 55%. June 13, 2025 Trump signed a Congressional resolution counteracting California's prohibition on the sale of petroleum vehicles after 2035. It appears that a TACO moment is coming up. The messaging here is really spastic.  Illegal immigrants in cities are violent criminals, unless they work in the hospitality industry, in which case they're good, long time workers, which is also true of farms, even though the DHS has a plan to raid farms with National Guardsmen to remove them. Eh? Of course, regarding agriculture, which I'm very familiar with, this is all an unintended consequence of the Bracero Program, which started the process of taking American laborers out of the fields, all of which raises a larger question.   Will Americans return to the jobs occupied by foreign workers, and what sort of pay will it require, if they will, to cause them to do that? And with this entry, we close this edition. End of Part Six. Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 5. The Roller Coaster Edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, China, Donald Trump, Economics, Food, Jerome Powell, Petroleum, Red Caesar, The Madness of King Donald, The Second Trump Administration, Trump Trade Wars, Wyoming's boom and bust economy