New home of @David_Charts. Armchair economist, sci-fi fan, impressed by good data viz. Node in the vast left wing conspiracy. Facts have a liberal bias.
Blue territory.
Joined June 2025
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David Doney retweeted
Two numbers explain 89% of midterm results since 1950 in the House: the generic ballot and the seats the president’s party holds.
This year, that would translate to a Democratic gain of 33 seats.
My @Morning_Joe Chart
David Doney retweeted
Trump promised to raise wages.
They've barely budged under his Presidency.
And since his war in Iran, real wages have actually fallen 1.3%.
David Doney retweeted
Younger Americans had more average household wealth at age 34 than Boomers did at the same age.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The chart shows average (mean) wealth of households headed by each generation at ~age 34, skewed by wealthy outliers. Median wealth at similar ages was comparable across generations per SCF data; fewer young adults heading households biases recent figures upward for them.
stlouisfed.org/open-vault/202…
stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy…
youngamericans.berkeley.edu/2024/05/scf-co…
David Doney retweeted
Sex tourism is out. Cult tourism is in.
David Doney retweeted
Word clouds from @lxeagle17's latest people —
People don't really know what Democrats stand for, which is not ideal. But they DO know what Republicans stand for and that's worse.
theargumentmag.com/p/how-rep…
David Doney retweeted
My recap of the employer cost index for September/Q3: health insurance costs are eating up your pay raise
macromostly.substack.com/p/e…
David Doney retweeted
Meantime, the ECI shows a sharp rise in health insurance costs pushing up U.S. employers’ benefit costs, even as growth in wages and salaries slows.
Wage growth has slowed to 3.1% as of Q3, while benefit costs are up 3.9%. Benefit cost growth has traditionally run slightly below wages, but now it is running slightly above them.
This means workers are getting less of their compensation as pay and more in insurance premiums, which are driven mostly by things outside of employers' control.
This raises a few questions: Do higher fixed costs for workers on health coverage lead businesses to hire more cautiously (or shift to part-time workers who don't get benefits)? And note: if employers respond by passing more costs onto workers through higher premiums or less coverage, the ECI won't capture this.
David Doney retweeted
Over $28,000 a year for family health insurance premiums, up from $6,000 in 1999.
And that’s before deductibles, copays, and surprise bills.
The system is fundamentally broken.
David Doney retweeted
Important chart from @EconBerger
Healthcare costs are soaring again for employers (and frankly for most Americans). Take a look at the green line on the chart.
A key reason employers aren't eager to boost wages right now is b/c they are paying a lot more toward healthcare costs.
"Wage growth is being outpaced by benefit cost growth. And a major recent driver for benefit cost growth is employer health insurance contributions: they’re growing at 6.4% Y/Y, matching the fastest pace in two decades." - Economist Guy Berger
David Doney retweeted
Wages and salaries, adjusted for inflation, were down 0.6 percent in September from a year earlier.
Lots of talk about the "divide" between sentiment and data, but it doesn't seem hard to understand why people are unhappy when their pay is declining in real terms.
David Doney retweeted
Picard taught me more about leadership than any MBA could.
He never raised his voice to be heard. He listened before he decided. He let Riker, Data, Worf argue him out of positions, and then owned the call completely. When he was wrong, he said so in front of the crew. When he was right, he didn't gloat.
And when he had to stand alone — against Starfleet, against the Borg, against a Cardassian with four lights — he stood.
That is the whole job. Build people who will tell you the truth, then carry the weight yourself.
Patrick Stewart played it so well that a generation of us mistook a character for a manual. Turns out the manual was fine.
A great actor, and a Yorkshire kid who started as an obituary writer. Today the obituary is his.
Make it so, Sir Patrick. Rest well.
David Doney retweeted
If Republicans keep the Senate:
Abortion: More judges who could uphold restrictions on reproductive care.
Courts: More lifetime Trump appointees, including any Supreme Court replacement.
Gun safety: Greater risk of courts striking down existing gun laws.
Health care: Continued support for coverage cuts and reduced federal health spending.
Social Security and Medicare: More support for proposals to restrict benefits or eligibility.
Immigration: Continued support for expanded detention and deportations.
Democracy: Fewer Senate checks on presidential overreach and abuses of power.
Corruption: Less Senate scrutiny of misconduct and conflicts of interest.
Education: More support for diverting resources from public schools and weakening civil rights enforcement.
Climate: More appointees who could weaken environmental protections.
Workers: Weaker enforcement of labor laws and union protections.
LGBTQ rights: More appointees who could undermine civil rights and access to transgender health care.
Consumer protection: Weaker oversight of banks, corporations, and predatory lenders.
WFMD/Fox: Nancy Pelosi calls Mamdani, El-Sayed’s past comments on Israel “concerning” and “wrong”
Pelosi on Abdul El-Sayed: El-Sayed: “This new person in Michigan, we’ll see if he gets elected.”
Link to article: wfmd.com/2026/10/29/nancy-pe…
David Doney retweeted
Real exports of "travel services" have been declining for five consecutive quarters. Travel services exports is the BEA’s measure of foreign visitor spending in the US — tourists, business travelers, and international students.
David Doney retweeted
Q: Are you the one who’s going to turn Texas blue?
@JamesTalarico: I’m not interested in turning Texas blue. I wanna win this seat so that I can fight for all 31 million Texans — whether they’re Democrats, independents, or Republicans.
My party talks about turning Texas blue a lot. Republicans talk about keeping Texas red. I think the best color for Texas is purple.
When you have a purple state and competitive elections, it forces every politician in both parties to stay on their toes. My hope in this race is that we can end 30 years of one-party rule and get competitive elections back in Texas so politicians are actually solving problems.
David Doney retweeted
These are serious times—and we need serious people representing us in Washington, DC and in states across the country.
Georgia, I hope you’re fired up and ready to vote for @KeishaBottoms for Governor and send Jon @Ossoff back to the U.S. Senate. Jon and Keisha will fight for you, and they’ve got real plans to build a better Georgia.
Reach out to your family and friends and encourage them to vote. Let’s get it done!
David Doney retweeted
If the Pope can vote all the way from Vatican City, you can too!
iwillvote.com
He may be the leader of the Catholic church, but Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV is still a registered voter in Illinois and requested a mail ballot for the midterm elections.
chicago.suntimes.com/pope-le…
David Doney retweeted
Obama: "I am old enough to remember when a president wearing a tan suit was a major national controversy. They were very upset. And I know I looked good in that suit."
David Doney retweeted
When you think of the planning that went into this troll, and then combine that with absolutely FLAWLESS execution, this is arguably the greatest troll in the history of trolling.