October 19—On July 4 British voters turned the page on 15 years of Conservative control and installed social democrat Keir Starmer's Labour Party at Westminster, offering a perfect opportunity to watch social democracy in action as Starmer and his associates face the task of rebuilding Britain along social democratic lines. At the center of much of the action is Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor of the Exchequer (Britain's equivalent to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury), who must juggle a 22 billion-pound shortfall inherited from her conservative predecessor with her Party's ambitions to invest in schools, working families, social housing, the faltering National Health Service, and to make targeted investments in promising industries. Labour faces the choice of any social democracy: how to tax enough to fund social democracy without impeding or disincentivizing the economic dynamism needed to produce prosperity: in separate articles, Guardian columnist James Smith and the Guardian editorial board offer their views on how best to thread that needle. To address one of Britain's key challenges to increasing productivity—too many workers on the sidelines—the new Labour health secretary has floated the idea of "weight-loss jabs" for those with chronic health conditions caused or exacerbated by obesity, citing also the increasing burden of British citizens' expanding waistbands on the struggling National Health Service. Finally, this Guardian piece sums up the Labour Party's first 100 days in office, 

October 16—There is a longstanding debate within the Democratic Party: does the path to electoral victory run through energizing the young, urban and identitarian "base" or through widening the Party's appeal to more voters not currently within the Democrat fold? This dilemma is being played out in the Harris campaign, as demonstrated by two articles appearing in this week's news. On the one hand, Harris has proposed a plan to "empower Black men"; on the other, Reuters reports that the campaign is shifting its strategy to "win over more men and Republicans." The TSD take: Democrats are trying to have it both ways. In the TSD's view, identitarian politics is both morally indefensible and a long-term loser for the Democratic Party, and broad social democratic programs should be offered to all American citizens without regard to where their ancestors lived. The Party will not broaden its base, nor will we develop a healthy polity, until we kick the habit of dividing Americans up into identitarian interest groups and offering special deals to each to secure its loyalty.

October 15—30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers employed at the Boeing Company's west coast manufacturing plants entered a second month on strike for higher wages and better pensions.

October 12—A proposal to set the minimum wage at $18 per hour by 2026 (from the current $16) will be on California's November ballot. TSD strongly supports a living wage for all working people.

October 10—On July 4 British voters turned out their long-serving Conservative government in favor of Keir Starmer's social-democratic Labor Party. "This is a government by working people, for working people, and our purpose is crystal clear—to make work pay," said Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner; and Labor's proposal for a new Workers Bill of Rights makes it clear that there's a new sheriff in town. The legislation will establish new protections against unfair dismissal and casual labor contracts; ensure paid paternity and unpaid parental leave; and set up a new Fair Work Agency to enforce labor regulations.

October 12—Addressing Donald Trump's increasingly truth-free diatribes, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank titles today's piece, "Trump Upgrades his Con to Category 5." After cataloguing some of Trump's biggest lies, Milbank writes the following:

"In reality-based America, illegal border crossings have plunged. Murders, rapes and other violent crimes have fallen. Fentanyl overdose deaths are declining sharply. Inflation has been tamed (September’s consumer price index was up just 2.4 percent from a year earlier), mortgage rates are falling, employment is booming and the stock market has been setting records. Fewer U.S. troops have died in hostile action under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration, and President Joe Biden has been adding to the national debt at half the pace Trump did. While Biden has rallied the world to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, Trump has had as many as seven calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House, The Post’s Bob Woodward reports in his new book."

October 12—Immigration has become a fraught topic in America and looks to be a major determinant in voting patterns in the coming election. What is an ideal level of immigration? And, what effect do immigrants have on the American economy? Donald Trump claims that immigrants are taking jobs that otherwise would be filled by native-born Americans. The data says otherwise, according to this article in AP News.

October 8—Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed expanding Medicare to cover at-home care for beneficiaries of the program. Under our current system, Medicare does not cover long-term care, either in-home or in nursing or assisted living facitilies, and recipients must spend themselves into poverty before being eligible for coverage under Medicaid. Details are still sparse, including the million-dollar question (which has sunken all previous efforts to establish a long-term care benefit under Medicare): how will such a costly program be paid for?

October 7—The traditional/woke, urban/rural culture war has turned old-syle politics on its head. In a sign of the times, the International Association of Firefighters has joined the Teamsters Union in taking a pass on endorsing clearly pro-union Kamala Harris against clearly anti-union Donald Trump. The TSD take: the blue-collar membership of both unions find much of Demorats recent identitarian and gender-bending discourse incomprehensible and/or off-putting and union leadership cannot risk alienating the rank and file.

October 4—Many Americans don't realize how dependent consumers are upon the container ships that bring all manner of goods into U.S. ports every day, or upon the workers who unload those ships at U.S. docks. When members of the International Longshoreman's Union went out on strike Tuesday, seeking higher wages and an end to further automation, J. P. Morgan claimed that the strike would cost the U.S. economy $5 billion every day; others spoke of bottlenecks and goods shortages further down the line. ILA members are already among the most highly paid manual workers in the nation, with average wages of $39 per hour, but the union wants a higher share of the record profits shippers have made during and since the pandemic. Automation, which threatens union jobs, is another major concern. The strike was suspended Friday after shippers agreed to hike wages to $63 per hour over the next six years, with discussions on remaining issues to resume.

October 3—"Industrial Policy," employing government power and finance to promote chosen sectors of a nation's economy, is back in vogue after being shunned in recent decades as inefficient and ineffective. The Biden adminstration has embraced the concept, sponsoring legislation to use public funds to support domestic chip manufacturers, EV producers and others; and Kamala Harris has pledged to follow a similar line. In this piece, New York Times columnist David Brooks looks at the arguments for and against using government resources to mold the national economy.

October 1—Mexico gained a new head of state on Tuesday when Claudia Sheinbaum, formerly Mexcio City mayor, took the presidential oath of office. A longtime ally of outgoing president Manuel Lopez-Obrador, the major question now is whether she will continue Obrador's populist policies, which have spooked international observers with attempts to draw ever more power into the hands of the president, or follow a more traditional social-democratic path.

September 28—This AP News piece looks at a major plank of Donald Trump's economic "plans" for a potential second term in the White House: tariffs. Economists are almost unanimous in panning Trump's tariff proposals, stating that such across-the-board duties on imports will ramp up inflation and stifle growth.

September 28—The Trump coalition consists not only of low-information and low-education voters who believe his ludicrous lies, but also sophisticated, highly educated business people who favor a low-tax, low-regulation economy. This Reuters piece looks at some of those voters.

September 28—New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on charges that he illegally facilitated the funneling of campaign contributions from Turkish nationals in exchange for favors to Turkey's interests in New York. He is also charged with accepting illegal gifts. The Mayor has pleaded not guilty.