ArcaMax

Can you hear the canary in the economy's coal mine singing her heart out?

You know that we are headed for trouble when some masses start buying groceries on the installment plan. That is the business model behind the popular "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) borrowing platforms -- loans that spread out purchases into four payments.

Troubles are ...Read more

There are a lot of things Donald Trump does not like. Find a common theme, and one may conclude that Trump doesn't like America. This thought is not original to me. Democratic strategist James Carville offers it as his theory of why Trump wreaks so much damage on this country.

Trump knows what he's doing and apparently takes pleasure in the ...Read more

Every year, there's a song of summer. It's often something to argue over when conversation lags at the barbecue.

In 2013, feminists attacked Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" for allegedly glamorizing sexual violence. "Blurred Lines" was a huge hit. According to Rolling Stone, "It held the whole world in its slightly skeevy grasp all summer long...Read more

The flooding in Texas is cataclysmic. It was a hellscape as dozens, many of them girls from a summer camp, were swept to their deaths. Such tragedies spawn questions over whether the National Weather Service could have better warned the public. But this one is different in that the Trump administration is shrinking the weather service and vows...Read more

Elon Musk warned that if Republicans passed their big domestic policy bill, he would form a new "America Party" to primary those who voted for it. He doesn't need a new party. He has his old one, the Democrats.

Many Democrats have grown to intensely dislike Musk, and they have their reasons. His prancing around with a chainsaw as he gleefully...Read more

Zohran Mamdani seemed to hit the political jackpot in besting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Hyper commentary now portrays this once obscure state assemblyman from Queens as a political meteor.

The thing about meteors is that they burn bright for a while and then fall. Mamdani is unlikely to...Read more

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana, is also a doctor. He put up resistance last February to Donald Trump's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "Bobby," as Trump likes to call him, has long cast doubts on the safety of vaccines that have saved millions from death or serious disease ...Read more

Let me offer some rare praise for Donald Trump. His attack on Iran's nuclear development sites was carefully executed. Nobody outside a tight circle knew about it in advance. And he was wise in shifting the talk into calls for peace.

We don't know whether the bunker busters reached all the near-bomb-grade uranium or if other sites for fuel ...Read more

Where is Barack Obama? Democrats had been frustrated that their charismatic former president had gone silent on MAGA's march of mayhem. Where is that smooth, persuasive voice?

It has risen. Obama has spoken, and Democrats would do well to take in the message.

"You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted," Obama sternly ...Read more

Donald Trump recently wrote on Truth Social: "Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace."

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Trump is heavily ...Read more

The president is doing his best to inflame passions within and at California. Calling in the National Guard against the governor's wishes is a provocation. Sending in Marines to add drama to his show is an insult as well as incitement. The Marines are not a fashion accessory. They are trained to confront foreign threats, not in policing the ...Read more

The hot-selling book "Abundance" is written by liberals who bash liberals, or more precisely, try to make them feel guilty. Sure, authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson shed some blame on conservatives for why America doesn't build as easily as it used to. But it's those liberals in expensive cities, the authors insist, who are callously ...Read more

What do you do about Joni Ernst? The Republican senator from Iowa is being mocked by liberal media and beyond for her snarky response to a question about cuts in Medicaid: "We all are going to die."

That clumsy remark has been skewered for its insensitivity, but its greater significance lies in the bigger issue. Ernst answers to Donald Trump ...Read more

Elon Musk may have thought that dropping more than $250 million into Trump's reelection campaign would have bought permanent affection from the president. No, it was a show of obeisance that labeled Musk as one to be played. Besides, in Trump's dog-eat-dog view of wealth, the far-richer Musk may have needed cutting down to size.

Trump knows ...Read more

Wyoming is the second windiest state, after Nebraska. It's obvious why the wind power industry is investing $10 billion there. And it's hard to see why any state politician would oppose this. But some have. Wyoming is one of those fossil-fuel producing states in which so-called conservatives feel obligated -- or are paid -- to stop competition...Read more

First off, let's drop the Republican claim that not extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts is a tax increase.

Many of these tax cuts were purposely designed to expire and for a sneaky reason. Making them permanent would have hiked the bill's cost by more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Add to that the interest payments tied to the higher borrowing...Read more

Donald Trump's whirlwind visit to Qatar was certainly an extravaganza: "Red and lavender carpets. Arabian horses. Glitzy chandeliers. Camels. Sword dancers," according to The New York Times.

Sounded like a night at Studio 54.

Back on Main Street USA, things looked less fabulous. Trump's tariffs have been menacing the nation's retailers, ...Read more

As I flew into Omaha for the first time, the only thing visible from my descending plane was cornfields. You could even see the tassels. I was wondering, where is the city?

There certainly was a city, with a world-class medical center, famous zoo and great nightlife. Old school steakhouses mixed with Persian and Asian restaurants. Anyone who ...Read more

At least six congressional Republicans are demanding a radical fix in the 2017 tax law targeting residents of high-income states. If they don't get it, they may sink Donald Trump's tax-and-spending package, his "one big beautiful bill."

And who can blame these reps from New York, New Jersey and California? At issue is the unfair cap on the ...Read more

Democrats are deep in debate over the age of their older leaders. Some need replacement, according to younger Democrats who want to replace them. And in some cases, they are right.

But these arguments turn toxic when they equate age with capability. Ageism is bad politics, especially when you look at the age of the electorate.

David Hogg, ...Read more