John T. Reed’s news blog

I occasionally remind readers about what is important as opposed to all the spin and ratings seeking..• The national debt-to-GDP ratio is grotesquely high and once against rising at a trillion dollar a year of additional deficit spending rate.• Trump’s trade war is hurting American exporters and consumers and likely to get worse.• America is the nation that pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs for. All other nations impose price controls on drugs. Trump says the US government will now pay the same as foreign countries with price controls. Price controls cause supply to shrink to the point of disappearance. In...

My wife is at a Hillsdale College seminar on the Constitution in DC. She asked an expert who said the Democrat party is having a civil war between the status quo people like Pelosi and the Bolsheviks how Pelosi becoming speaker again was a manifestation of any civil war. Black Caucus He said part of the Dem civil war that is unseen is the Black Caucus demanding that one of their most senior members get one of the top two majority posts in the House. The two top posts are Speaker and majority leader of the House.   Who are...

On Sunday, the Rams Todd Gurley could have scored a TD in the last minute of their game against the Packers. The Rams led by two at the moment. Instead, he turned toward the middle of the field and got tackled without going out of bounds.The Packers had no time outs and the Rames got a first down so the game, in effect, was over. They could just take a knee on first and maybe second down and the game clock would run out.Did they get that idea from my book Football Clock Management? Yep. If you doubt that, tell...

When I was writing the second edition of my book on hyperinflation and depression, it occurred to me that timber REITs might be a good way to invest in a commodity that would hold its value during inflation.Maybe not.U.S. timber has lately suffered from a couple of big problems: federal government decided to encourage planting timber years ago and Hurricane Michael destroyed something like $1.6 B of living trees. The federal encouragement was too effective. Too many people simultaneously planted trees that are now full grown and due it be sold. The bulge in supply is depressing prices big time.Michael simply...

I just took my 8-year-old granddaughter to see the movie First Man. It is PG-13, but I figured that was because of a curse word, which it was. About wives and death But it was as much about the wives of the astronauts as it was about the astronauts. It was about what it is like being married to a man who has a very dangerous job: terrifying.It also reminds you that dealing with the emergencies that happen in flight including space flight is quite remarkable. These guys are supermen.Maybe their depiction overstates it. Vibration that blinds you because your...