​Ford has announced plans to move out of the car industry.  Although Ford currently plans to maintain its production of the Mustang and the Focus Active, which is a hatchback more like a SUV than a car or a modern-day version of a station wagon, sedans will no longer be a staple of the Ford brand.  Instead, Ford will be a truck company.  It will focus on trucks and commercial vehicles.  Like the history of Ford, the future of Ford mirrors that of the US economy.  It was Henry Ford and his groundbreaking five-dollar-a-day wage that helped launch the Middle Class, whether Henry’s motivation was an altruistic attempt to turn employees into consumers or a means to lower costly turnover rates is debatable.  Ford was then, of course, part of the Labor Movement, even though it was often on the opposite side of its workers.  Finally, Ford became a symbol of the crescendoing struggles faced by all American manufacturers, Americans workers, and the US economy.

​Groundbreaking African American actor and legendary family sitcom star Bill Cosby’s legacy has finally collapsed under the weight of the sexual misconduct he committed over the course of his career.  Although Cosby has been accused of sexual misconduct and sexual assault several time by numerous woman over the course of decades, it was the drugging and assault of a Temple University employee that would transform the iconic role model to generations of black and non-black Americans into a convicted sexual predator.  It was a bittersweet moment for those who see the face of Dr. Cliff Huxtable as they listen to the terrifying accounts of his forced sexual encounters with women and the helpless silence he was able to inflict onto his victims thanks to his star power. 

​“If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you….” sounds an awful lot like a public official making a confession about his own corruption.  This admission to what appears to have been a crime, or at least what should have been a crime, comes from former US Congressman, current acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and current Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney.  Mulvaney’s scandalous remarks were part a speech he delivered at an American Bankers Association conference where he also discussed his desire to eliminate public access to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s online database of customer complaints against banks. While defenders of Mulvaney point to his broader message of civil engagement, it is both troubling and a clear example of wrongdoing.

​Russia and Saudi Arabia, due to an agreement brokered by the major oil producing countries to cut global oil production, appear to be largely responsible for a steady decline in global crude supplies and subsequent uptick in fuel prices.  Because the need for transportation makes gasoline and diesel fuel a necessity, rising prices tend to hurt the wallets of average consumers.  Lacking a nationwide public transportation system, gasoline-powered vehicles offer Americans a sense of freedom and empowerment, thus a rise in gasoline prices is particularly enraging to Americans.  Donald Trump’s so-called oil rant certainly plays into those sentiments, even if the oil industry receives such price increases as positive developments.  Clearly, perception plays a big role in how shifts in energy prices are received and analyzed, but what actually matters is the real world consequences.