4+ hour, 51+ min ago (765+ words) New housing under construction in California Ezra Klein had a classic column in the New York Times the other day which he advertises in its title: "America's Housing Crisis, in One Chart." The chart he highlights; new housing units per capita, is informative, but not quite in the way he says. Source: US Census Bureau The reason for highlighting the impact of the bubble and its bursting, rather than the problems cited by Klein, is we need to have a sense of relative importance. Restrictive zoning is definitely a problem, and we should look at regulatory constraints, especially on manufactured housing, that may needlessly limit supply and push up prices. But we had restrictive zoning and needless regulations before 2008 and still managed to build plenty of housing. That suggests that these are not the main obstacles to more construction. Construction…...

5+ hour, 26+ min ago (475+ words) Nearly half of Americans are trading turkey this Thanksgiving for cheaper options like chicken, according to a new report from Defend America Action. It's just one example of how rising costs are putting a damper on the holiday. The report was compiled at the behest of more than a dozen Democratic state legislators, who have personally witnessed their constituents cutting corners to make ends meet. "While Trump and Republicans spend billions bailing out their allies and handing out tax breaks to billionaires, Americans are facing higher prices with fewer resources," the lawmakers said in a joint statement. "Many Americans will find themselves clipping coupons, cutting costs, and waiting in long lines instead of settling in for a relaxing holiday with family and friends." The report found that 57 percent of Americans say that Thanksgiving trimmings are more expensive than last year....

6+ hour, 20+ min ago (527+ words) Avatar of 'Amara M,' a fake account from Thailand that claims to be a 'Trump supporting MAGA girl' in the US Elon Musk has finally done something good with X, even if it wasn't necessarily the goal. Over the weekend, his social media company rolled out a new policy that allows users to see not only when an X account was created, but also where the account is from. The new feature has led a number of pro-Donald Trump and pro-MAGA accounts to be unwittingly exposed as foreign trolls'who have had great success amassing followers and thus payments from Musk's creator fund by capitalizing on the easily manipulated rubes in the Republican base. "This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the…...

17+ hour, 52+ min ago (417+ words) Republicans are increasingly anxious about the 2026 midterm elections, fearing a potential "wipeout" that could cost them their House majority and several Senate seats. The Hill reported Monday that off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and municipal races around the country indicate they might be in trouble. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who is not running for reelection, told the outlet, "If we are where we are today in the beginning of the second quarter [of 2026], then I think we're in for a really rough time in November." "We have plenty of time to address it. There are a lot of positive things that we're doing here, that the administration is doing. But if you mess with health care " if we don't get health care policy right, if we don't get some of the cost policies right, we're going to have major…...

1+ day, 37+ min ago (372+ words) Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) touts her role in ending the government shutdown, even though the final bill did not include any of her legislative priorities. Collins leads the Senate Appropriations Committee that crafted the continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. She is the only Senate Republican to endorse extending Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies and reining in President Donald Trump's spending cuts, but the CR did not include these provisions, and Collins did not vote with Democrats who were pushing to add them. "I was responsible for not only putting the bill together, but also managing it on the Senate floor," Collins said in a November 18 radio interview. "Dealing with proposals to change it, negotiating not only with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but also with the House of Representatives and the administration." The 43-day shutdown…...

1+ day, 1+ hour ago (242+ words) Republicans across the country, spurred by President Donald Trump and encouraged by House Speaker Mike Johnson, are pushing hard to redraw as many congressional districts as possible in order to maintain their House majority after next year's midterm elections. Instead, Trump's meddling has turned redistricting into a perpetual power-grab, eroding public trust and encouraging every state to treat its map as a live grenade rather than a settled civic obligation. Not only have Democrats engaged in retaliatory efforts that will likely leave things roughly where they began, but also a recent legal decision means Republicans' attempt to gain an extra five seats in Texas may end up reversed, leaving Republicans further behind than where they started. Trump and Johnson have never hidden the motive behind their effort. One recalcitrant Republican state legislator in Indiana, where the state GOP is warring…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago (1615+ words) President Donald Trump at campaign rally in Potterville, Michigan on August 22, 2024 The data nerds among us were happy to finally get their September jobs report fix, even though these data are somewhat stale now. However, we still learned a few things about the state of the economy. Before saying what we learned, it's worth a few words on what we didn't learn but people are saying anyway. First and foremost, this was not a strong report in any real-world sense of the term. To be clear, the 119,000 jobs reported for the month was stronger than most analysts had expected, including me. But this hardly implies robust job growth. We averaged 170,000 jobs a month in 2024, so now we're supposed to be celebrating a report showing job growth that is 70 percent of last year's average? But it gets worse. The prior two…...

1+ day, 6+ hour ago (360+ words) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday refused to admit inflation has gone up for Americans after NBC Meet The Press host Kristen Welker confronted him with the numbers."Inflation has gone up," Welker said Sunday. "It's at three percent now up from two percent in April when the tariffs were imposed.No, no no no," Bessent replied. "So, inflation hasn't gone up. The one thing we're not gonna do is do what the Biden administration did and tell the American people they don't know how they feel. They are traumatized."Bessent's remark sparked outrage from observers who noted President Donald Trump's administration is doing the same thing it accused its predecessor of doing " telling consumers not to believe their own pocketbooks.As policy analyst Evaristus Odinikaeze posted on X, "the inflation went from 2 percent to 3 percent, literally and no amount…...

3+ day, 11+ hour ago (335+ words) Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson It took three weeks for President Donald Trump to speak up. In the meantime, Tucker Carlson's chummy interview with white nationalist and outspoken anti-Semite Nick Fuentes was tearing Trump's MAGA crowd apart. And when he finally did speak up, it was to defend Tucker Carlson " and Nick Fuentes. "We've had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can't tell him who to interview," Trump told the press this week. "I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes " I don't know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out, let him. You know, people have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide." "Jews are running society, women need to shut the fuck up, Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise....

3+ day, 12+ hour ago (626+ words) Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were stunned this week after the agency quietly rewrote long-standing language on vaccines and autism, adding false information that has been extensively debunked. The CDC's website, once unequivocal that studies show "no link" between childhood vaccines and autism, now carries a very different message. The updated page says the statement "vaccines do not cause autism" is "not an evidence-based claim," falsely arguing that research has "not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism." It also incorrectly states that public health authorities have "ignored" studies pointing to a supposed connection. That framing mirrors arguments long pushed by one of the country's most prominent anti-vaccine advocates: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC. Inside the agency, the fallout was immediate. Five CDC officials…...