1. Justin Lahart and Danny Dougherty. “America’s Job Market Has Entered the Slow Lane.” Wall Street Journal. 10 Jan 2026

2. Rachel Louise Ensign and Rachel Wolfe. “The Middle Class Is Buckling Under Almost Five Years of Persistent Inflation.” Wall Street Journal. 21 Nov 2025

3. Abha Bhattarai. “More Americans are Getting their Power Shut Off, as Unpaid Bills Pile Up.”

4. “Auto Loan 60+ Delinquency Index.” Fitch Ratings.

5. United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The Employment Situation – November 2025.”  7 Jan 2026

6. United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The Employment Situation – December 2025.”  8 Jan 2026

7. Erica L. Green. “Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’ as His Edge on the Economy Slips.” New York Times. 2 Dec 2025

8. Nela Richardson. “Small Employers Have Something to Tell Us.” ADP Research. 9 Dec 2025

9. Stephen J. Rose and Scott Winship. “The Middle Class is Shrinking Because of a Booming Upper-Middle Class.” American Enterprise Institute. 6 Jan 2026

10. United States. “How Much Federal Money Goes Toward All State and Local Governments?” USA Facts. 2 May 2025

11. Aaron Gregg and Federica Cocco. “The ‘S&P 493’ Reveals a Very Different U.S. Economy.” Washington Post. 24 Nov 2025

12. Paul Kedrosky. “Honey, AI Capex is Eating the Economy.” 18 July 2025

13. Brian Riedl. “Trump’s Fiscal Legacy: A Comprehensive Overview of Spending, Taxes, and Deficits.” Manhattan Institute. 12 May 2022

14. “How Much Did President Biden Add to the Debt?” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.” 3 Apr 2025

15. “The United States Is Adding to the National Debt Faster Than Ever.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation. 22 Oct 2025

 

Red Flags & Ticking Time Bombs

 

1. Jon Hilsenrath.  “After Record-Long Expansion, Here’s What Could Knock the Economy Off Course.”  Wall Street Journal.  3 June 2019

2. Tim Mahedy and Daniel J. Wilson.  “Fiscal Policy in Good Times and Bad.”  Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  9 July 2018

3. United States. Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter and Year 2018 (Third Estimate); Corporate Profits, Fourth Quarter and Year 2019.” 28 Mar 2019

4. United States. Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter and Year 2019 (Third Estimate); Corporate Profits, Fourth Quarter and Year 2019.” 26 Mar 2020

5. United States. Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter and Year 2019 (Third Estimate); Corporate Profits, Fourth Quarter and Year 2020.” 25 Mar 2021

6. Bruce Bartlett.  “I Helped Create the GOP Tax Myth.  Trump is Wrong: Tax Cuts Don’t Equal Growth.”  Washington Post.  28 Sept 2017

7. Alan J. Auerbach and Joel Slemrod.  “The Economic Effects of The Tax Reform Act Of 1986.”  Journal of Economic Literature. 

8. Jeanne Sahadi.  “Taxes: What People Forget About Reagan.”  CNN Money. 12 Sept 2010

9. Janet Adamy and Paul Overberg. “Median U.S. Household Income Showed No Growth in 2018.” Wall Street Journal. 10 Sept 2019

10. United States.  Congress.  “Two Years of Evidence Show 2017 Tax Cuts Failed to Deliver Promised Economic Boost.”  Joint Economic Committee.  28 Jan 2020

11. Howard Gleckman.  “The Three Numbers to Know About the TCJA in 2018.”  Tax Policy Center.  18 Apr 2019

12. Kate Davidson. “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: GOP Tax Plan Would More Than Offset Its Cost.” Wall Street Journal. 28 Sept 2017

13. Greg Ip and Paul Hannon. “Mnuchin Warns U.K., Italy Over Digital-Tax Plans.” Wall Street Journal. 21 Jan 2020

14. Allan Sloan and Cezary Podkul. “Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weight Down and Economy for Years.” ProPublica. 14 Jan 2021

15. Erik Sherman.  “The S&P 500 Is at an All Time High – But Markets Still Performed Far Better Under Obama Than Trump.”  Fortune.  1 Nov 2019

16. Heather Long.  “Trump’s Stock Market Rally is Very Good, But Still Lags Obama and Clinton.”  Washington Post.  28 Dec 2019

17. Sarah Chaney and Theo Francis.  “Company Repatriations of Cash Surged, Then Moderated in 2018.”  Wall Street Journal.  27 Mar 2019

18. United States. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Filippo Occhino. “The Effect of the 2017 Tax Reform on Investment.” 7 July 2020

19. Heather Long. ‘Why Aren’t the Other Hands Up?’ A Top Trump Adviser’s Startling Response to CEOs Not Doing What He’d Expect.” Washington Post. 14 Nov 2017

20. “What Are Businesses Saying About Tax Reform Now?”  Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.  23 Mar 2018​

21. “S&P 500 Q4 2018 Buybacks Set 4th Consecutive Quarterly Record at $223 Billion; 2018 Sets Record $806 Billion.”  S&P Global.  25 Mar 2019

22. “S&P 500 Buybacks Up 3.2% in Q4 2019; Full Year 2019 Down 9.6% from Record 2018, as Companies Brace for a More Volatile 2020.” S&P Global. 24 Mar 2020

23. Kathleen Kahle and Rene M. Stulz. “Why Are Corporate Payouts So High in the 2000s?” National Bureau of Economic Research. April 2020, Revised December 2020.

24. Richard Rubin and Theo Francis.  “Trump Promised a Rush of Repatriated Cash, But Company Responses Are Modest.”  Wall Street Journal.  16 Sept 2018

25. Austin Herrick.  “Estimates of TCJA Repatriation of Foreign Earnings on Investment and GDP.”  Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM).  29 Aug 2018

26. United States.  Congress.  “Repatriating Offshore Funds: 2004 Tax Windfall for Select Multinationals.”  112th Congress. 11 Oct 2011

27. United States.  Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  “U.S. Corporations’ Repatriation of Offshore Profits: Evidence from 2018.”  6 Aug 2019

28. Toluse Olorunnipa.  “Trump’s Tax Promises Undercut by CEO Plans to Help Investors.” Bloomberg.  29 Nov 2017

29. Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr.  “Stock Buybacks and Corporate Cashouts.” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 11 June 2018 

30. Leslie Josephs. “American Airlines CEO: ‘I Don’t Think We’re Ever Going to Lose Money Again.’” CNBC. 28 Sept 2017

31. David Shepardson. “U.S. Airlines to Defend $54 Billion Covid-19 Government Lifeline.” Reuters. 15 Dec 2021

32. “Trump Defends Tax Plan As ‘Great Christmas Gifts’ to Middle Class.”  Reuters.  16 Dec 2017

33. “The Federal Response to Covid-19.” USASpending.gov. 9 Jan 2025

34. Thomas Kaplan.  “Trump Signs Budget Deal to Raise Spending and Reopen Government.”  8 Feb 2018

35. Thomas Kaplan.  “Congress Approves $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill, Averting A Showdown.”  New York Times.  22 Mar 2018

36. Deirdre Shesgreen and Eliza Collins.  “What’s In – And What’s Out – Of The $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill.”  USA Today.  21 Mar 2018

37. Caitlin Emma.  “Trump Signs 2-Year Budget Deal.” Politico.  2 Aug 2019

38. Emily Cochrane.  “Congress Approves Spending Package to Avoid Shutdown, Clearing It for Trump.”  New York Times.  19 Dec 2019

39. United States.  Department of the Treasury.  “Final Monthly Treasury Statement of Receipts and Outlays of the United States Government.”  13 Nov 2018

40. “Are Defense and Disasters Causing the Deficit Increase?” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.  18 Oct 2018

41. Ben Leubsdorf and ​Richard Rubin.  “U.S. Government Revenues Drop in Wake of Tax Cuts.”  Wall Street Journal.  12 July 2018  

42. United States.  Department of the Treasury.  “Mnuchin and Vought Release Joint Statement on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2019.”  25 Oct 2019

43. Kate Davidson. “U.S. Budget Gap Tripled to Record $3.1 Trillion in Fiscal 2020, Treasury Says.” Wall Street Journal. 16 Oct 2020

44. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2021.”

45. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2022.”

46. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2023.”

47. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2024.”

48. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2025.”

49. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2025 to 2035.” 17 Jan 2025

50. Dr. David Kelly and Jennifer Qiu. “The Investment Implications of U.S. Federal Debt.” J.P. Morgan Asset Management. 21 May 2024

51. United States.  Department of the Treasury. “The Debt to the Penny.” 11 Aug 2025

52. United States.  Department of the Treasury. “Major Holders of Treasury Securities.” 11 Aug 2025

53. United States. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Actions and Activities.” May 2024

54. “Final OBBBA Score Confirms Long Road to Fiscal Recovery.” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 21 July 2025

55. “Road to Fiscal Recovery.” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 21 July 2025

56. United States. Congressional Budget Office. “Estimated Budgetary Effects of Public Law 119-21, to Provide for Reconciliation Pursuant to Title II of H. Con. Res. 14, Relative to CBO’s January 2025 Baseline.” 21 July 2025

57. United States. White House. “The One Big Beautiful Bill: Legislation for Historic Prosperity and Deficit Reduction.” Council of Economic Advisers. June 2025

58. United States. Congress. “Macroeconomic Analysis of the Tax Provisions of the Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Related to Tax as Ordered Reported by the Committee on Ways and Means.” 14 May 2025

59. “The House-Passed Reconciliation Bill: Budget, Economic, and Distributional Effects.” Penn Wharton Budget Model. 23 May 2025

60. Garrett Watson, Erica York, Alex Muresianu, Alex Durante, Huaqun Li, Peter Van Ness, Aleksei Shilov, and William McBride. “‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ House GOP Tax Plan: Details and Analysis.” Tax Foundation. 6 June 2025

61. Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss. “Foreign Holdings of U.S. Treasuries Rise in May Despite China Drop.” Reuters. 16 May 2025

62. Larry Fink. “How to Grow Out of America’s Debt Woes.” Wall Street Journal. 5 Nov 2024

63. “Foundation Fact Sheet.” Gates Foundation. 5 Dec 2025

64. “Over 270 million Free Books Gifted as Of February 2025.” Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. 27 Feb 2025

65. “Who Has Taken the Pledge.” The Giving Pledge. 5 Dec 2025

66. Michael T. Nietzel. “MacKenzie Scott’s Higher Ed Philanthropy Tops $1 Billion For the Year.” Forbes. 5 Dec 2025

67. “Charitable Giving Statistics.” National Philanthropic Trust. 5 Dec 2025

68. Rachel Louise Ensign. “The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People.” Wall Street Journal. 23 Feb 2025

69. Eric Revell. “America’s Wealthiest Households Driving Nearly Half of Consumer Spending: Moody’s.” Fox Business. 25 Feb 2025

70. Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen and Paul Kiel.  “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax.”  ProPublica.  8 June 2021

71. Stephen Engelberg and Richard Tofel. “Why We Are Publishing the Tax Secrets of the .001%.”  ProPublica.  8 June 2021

72. “Ex-IRS Contractor Charles Littlejohn, Who Admitted Leaking Trump’s Tax Records, Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison.” CBS News. 29 Jan 2024

73. Editorial Board. “The U.S. Already Soaks the Rich.” Wall Street Journal. 29 Mar 2024

74. Warren Buffett. “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.”  New York Times.  14 Aug 2011

​

Let There Be Light

 

1. Celisa Calacal. “Can Kansas City Keep This Struggling Grocery Store Open? It’s Spent Millions Trying.” National Public Radio. 19 May 2025

2. Sam Zeff. “A Troubled Kansas City Grocery Store Has Closed, Despite Nearly $18 million in City Investments.” 12 Aug 2025

3. Kimberly Noble, Katherine Magnuson, Greg Duncan, Lisa A. Gennetian, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Nathan A. Fox, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Sonya Troller-Renfree, Sangdo Han, Shannon Egan-Dailey, Timothy D. Nelson, Jennifer Mize Nelson, Sarah Black, Michael Georgieff and Debra Karhson. “The Effect of a Monthly Unconditional Cash Transfer on Children’s Development at Four Years of Age: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the U.S.” National Bureau of Economic Research. May 2025

4. Jason DeParle. “Study May Undercut Idea That Cash Payments to Poor Families Help Child Development.” New York Times. 28 July 2025

5. David Bauerlein. “Baldwin’s Unusual Town-Owned and Operated Grocery Store is Coming to a Close in March.” The Florida Times-Union. 9 Feb 2024

 

Stop the Bleeding

 

1. United States.  Congress.  “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.” H.R.1.  115th Congress.  22 Dec 2018

2. Jim Tankersley, Peter Eavis and Ben Casselman.  “How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0.”  New York Times.  17 Nov 2019

3. Christopher Ingraham.  “Dozens Of America’s Biggest Businesses Paid No Federal Income Tax – Again.”  Washington Post. 5 Apr 2021 

4. Matthew Gardner and Steve Wamhoff.  “55 Corporations Paid $0 In Federal Taxes On 2020 Profits.”  Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  2 Apr 2021

5. Matthew Gardner and Steve Wamhoff. “Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Five Years of the Trump Law.” Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 29 Feb 2024

6. William G. Gale, Hilary Gelfond, Aaron Krupkin, Mark J. Mazur, and Eric Toder.  “Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:  A Preliminary Analysis.” Tax Policy Center.  13 June 2018 

7. “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as Reported by Conference Committee:  Static and Dynamic Effects on the Budget and the Economy.”  Penn Wharton Budget Model.  18 Dec 2017

8. Steve Wamhoff and Matthew Gardner.  “Federal Tax Cuts in The Bush, Obama, And Trump Years.”  Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  11 July 2018

9. “Swamped.”  Public Citizen.  1 Dec 2017

10. Jesse Drucker and Jim Tankersley.  “How Big Companies Won New Tax Breaks from the Trump Administration.”  New York Times.  30 Dec 2019

11. Jesse Drucker.  “The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package.”  New York Times.  24 Apr 2020

12. Jeff Stein and Yeganeh Torbati.  “Trump’s Former Treasury Secretary Expected to Launch Investment Fund, Seeking Backing of Persian Gulf State Funds.”  Washington Post.  23 Feb 2021

13. United States. Internal Revenue Service. “Tax Gap Estimates for Tax Years 2015-2016.” 15 Jan 2025

14. Editorial Board. “How to Collect $1.4 Trillion in Unpaid Taxes. New York Times. 20 Mar 2021

15. “The Moment of Truth.”  The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  December 2010

16. United States Joint Committee on Taxation. “Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2024-2028.” 11 Dec 2024

17. “Budget Basics: Tax Expenditures.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation. 13 Jan 2025

18. “Weakening the SALT Cap Would be a Costly Mistake.” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 9 Jan 2025

19. Kenan Fikri, Sarah Eckhardt and Benjamin Glasner. “The Great Transfer-mation.” Economic Innovation Group. September 2024

20. Vivek Ramaswamy. Post on X. 14 Nov 2024
21. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. “Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government.” Wall Street Journal. 20 Nov 2024

22. United States. Supreme Court. “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency.” 597 US (2022). Decided June 30, 2022.

23. United States. Supreme Court. “Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.” 603 US (2024). Decided June 28, 2024.

24. Tony Romm. “Musk’s Plan to Cut $2 Trillion in U.S. Spending Could Bring Economic Turmoil.” Washington Post. 29 Oct 2024

25. Elon Musk. Post on X. 18 Dec 2024

26. Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and James Oliphant. “Trump Headlines Madison Square Garden Rally After Vulgar, Racist Remarks from Allies.” Reuters. 28 Oct 2024

27. Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, Nicky Ouellet, and Kate Concannon. “How Elon Bought Twitter with Other People’s Money.” NPR. 30 Nov 2022

28. Kinsey Crowley and Max Hauptman. “Down 80%: Fidelity Says X Has Plummeted in Value Since Elon Musk’s Takeover.” USA Today. 2 Oct 2024

29. Max Zahn. “Tesla Stock Plummeted 12% in a Single Day. Here’s Why.” ABC News. 4 Jan 2023

30. “Musk’s Platform has Lost 2.7 million Active U.S. Users in Two Months, while its Rival has Gained 2.5 million.” Guardian. 11 Dec 2024

31. Elon Musk. Post on X. 29 Oct 2024

32. Kit Norton. “Tesla Stock Heads Toward 400 For First Time Since 2022.” Investor’s Business Daily. 9 Dec 2024

33. David Brooks. “My Unsettling Interview with Steve Bannon.” New York Times. 1 July 2024

34. Alan Rappeport. “Trump and Democrats Agree: U.S. Needs a National Wealth Fund for Investments.” New York Times. 10 Sept 2024

35. Katie Colton, Erez Eizenman, Marcy Jacobs and Sarah Tucker-Ray. “How US Government Leaders Can Deliver a Better Customer Experience.” McKinsey & Co. 9 June 2023

36. Judson Jones. “Weather Service Is Hiring Hundreds After Sweeping Cuts Earlier This Year.” New York Times. 7 Aug 2025

37. Hannah Natanson. “DOGE Vowed to Make Government More ‘Efficient’ - But It’s Doing the Opposite.” Washington Post. 2 June 2025

38. Jessie Blaeser. “Just How Much has DOGE Exaggerated Its Numbers? Now We Have Receipts.” Politico. 12 Aug 2025

39. Will Oremus and Drew Harwell. “Musk Accused Reuters of ‘Social Deception.’ The Deception was His.” Washington Post. 15 Feb 2025

40. Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman. “Musk Seeks to Put $100 Million Directly into Trump Political Operation.” New York Times. 11 Mar 2025

41. Pranshu Verma and Trisha Thadani. “Anger at Elon Musk Turns Violent with Molotov Cocktails and Gunfire at Tesla Lots.”

42. Dan Keating, Andrew Ba Tran, Rachel Lerman and Jon Swaine. “Musk’s DOGE Says it Has Saved $55 Billion. Not So Fast.” Washington Post. 22 Feb 2025

43. Jane C. Timm. “Dozens of DOGE ‘Receipts’ Saved No Money and Killed Contracts Meant to Boost Efficiency.” NBC News. 26 Feb 2025

44. Ryan J. Foley. “Nearly 40% of Contracts Canceled by Musk’s DOGE are Expected to Produce No Savings.” Associated Press. 25 Feb 2025

45. David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine. “DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find.” New York Times. 13 Mar 2025

46. Desmond Butler, Trisha Thadani, Emmanuel Martinez, Aaron Gregg. Luis Melgar, Jonathan O'Connell, and Dan Keating. “Elon Musk’s Business Empire is Built on $38 Billion in Government Funding.” Washington Post. 26 Feb 2025

47. Eric Lipton and Kirsten Grind. “Elon Musk’s Business Empire Scores Benefits Under Trump Shake-Up.” New York Times. 11 Feb 2025

48. Micah Maidenberg and Drew FitzGerald. “Musk’s SpaceX Forges Tighter Links with U.S. Spy and Military Agencies.” Wall Street Journal. 20 Feb 2024

49. Joey Roulette and Marisa Taylor. “Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX is Building Spy Satellite Network for U.S. Intelligence Agency, Sources Say.” Reuters. 16 Mar 2024

50. Ian Duncan, Hannah Natanson, Lori Aratani, and Faiz Siddiqui. “FAA Targeting Verizon Contract in Favor of Musk’s Starlink, Sources Say.” Washington Post. 26 Feb 2025

51. Faiz Siddiqui and Hannah Natanson. “As Musk Polices His Own Conflicts, Some Agencies Hear Sirens Going Off.” Washington Post. 1 Mar 2025

52. United States. Internal Revenue Service. “IRS: The Tax Gap.” 14 Apr 2025

 

Operation Overhaul

 

1. “Fortune Global 500.”  Fortune. 10 Jan 2025

2. United States.  Department of the Treasury. “How Much Revenue Has the U.S. Government Collected This Year.” 10 Jan 2025

3. United States.  Government Accountability Office. “Payment Integrity:  Federal Agencies’ Estimates of FY 2019 Improper Payments.” March 2020

4. Unites States. Government Accountability Office. “F-35 Sustainment: Costs Continue to Rise While Planned Use and Availability Have Decreased.” 15 April 2024

5. Adam Twardowski.  “A Conversation with HASC Chairman Adam Smith.”  Brookings.  16 Mar 2021

6. Michelle Singletary.  “The IRS Paid $3 Billion In Interest to Taxpayers Because It Failed to Get Refunds Out on Time.”  Washington Post.  2 Mar 2021

7. United States. “Medicare and Medicaid: Additional Actions Needed to Enhance Program Integrity and Save Billions.” 16 Apr 2024

8. Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz. “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions.” New York Times. 8 Oct 2022

9. “Humana to Pay $90 Mln to Settle Claim That It Overcharged Medicare for Drugs.” Reuters. 16 Aug 2024

10. United States. Department of Justice. “False Claims Act Settlements and Judgments Exceed $2.68 Billion in Fiscal Year 2023.” 22 Feb 2024

11. United States.  “The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later.” House Budget Committee Report.  3 Mar 2014

12. “Transforming DoD’s Core Business Processes for Revolutionary Change.”  Defense Business Board. 22 Jan 2015

13. Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward. “Pentagon Buries Evidence of $125 Billion in Bureaucratic Waste.” Washington Post. 5 Dec 2016

14. United States.  Government Accountability Office. “Iraq:  DOD Needs to Improve Visibility and Accountability Over Equipment Provided to Iraq’s Security Forces.”  May 2017

15. United States.  Government Accountability Office. “DOD Financial Management.” 13 Apr 2021

16. Scot J. Paltrow and Kelly Carr.  “How the Pentagon’s Payroll Quagmire Traps America’s Soldiers.”  Reuters.  2 July 2013

17. Scot J. Paltrow.  “Behind the Pentagon’s Doctored Ledgers, A Running Tally of Epic Waste.”  Reuters.  18 Nov 2013

18. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Financial Management. DOD Needs to Improve System Oversight.” March 2023

19. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Our Priority Recommendations for the Department of Defense - Actions that Can Bring the Best Rewards.” 23 May 2023

20. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Covid Money Tracker.” 2 Nov 2023

21. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Unemployment Insurance: Estimated Amount of Fraud During Pandemic Likely Between $100 Billion and $135 Billion.” 12 Sept 2023

22. Tony Romm. “U.S. Charges ‘Brazen’ Theft of $250 Million from Pandemic Food Program.” Washington Post. 20 Sept 2022

23. Sacha Pfeiffer. “Some Companies are Paying Back PPP Loans When They Could Be Forgiven.” National Public Radio. 9 Jan 2024

24. United States. Department of the Treasury. “SBA OIG Uses DNP to Evaluate Fraud Concerns for PPP and EIDL Programs.” Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

25. United States. Small Business Administration. “SBA’s Handling of Potentially Fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program Loans.” 26 May 2022

26. Robin Saks Frankel. “Banks Made Billions on PPP Loans. Learn What They’re Doing with The Cash.” Forbes. 15 July 2020

27. “National Restaurant Association.” Open Secrets. 11 Jan 2025

28. “American Hotel & Lodging.” Open Secrets. 11 Jan 2025

29. Jonathan O’Connell, Steven Rich and Peter Whoriskey.  “Public Companies Received $1 Billion in Stimulus Funds Meant for Small Businesses.” Washington Post.  1 May 2020

30. “New Research Brief Finds Banks Have Cashed in $19 Billion in Fees for Processing Covid-19 Relief PPP Loans.”  University of Massachusetts Amherst. 8 Sept 2020

31. Stacy Cowley. “Despite Billions in Fees, Banks Predict Meager Profits on P.P.P. Loans.”  New York Times.  1 Oct 2020

32. Stacy Cowley and Ella Koeze. “1 Percent of P.P.P. Borrowers Got Over One-Quarter of the Loan Money.”  New York Times. 1 Feb 2021

33. Ryan Tracy.  “Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Say.” Wall Street Journal.  8 Nov 2020

34. United States. Small Business Administration. Office of the Inspector General. Report 23-09. “Covid-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape.” 27 June 2023

35. United States. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas. “Leader of $20M Covid-19 Relief Fraud Ring Sent to Prison.” 3 Oct 2023

36. Sacha Pfeiffer and Austin Fast. “How the Paycheck Protection Program Went from Good Intentions to a Huge Free-for-All.” 9 Jan 2023

37. Eileen Sullivan. “Trump Upended the Federal Government. The Full Scope of the Impact Is Still Unclear.” New York Times. 30 Dec 2025

38. Richard Rubin and Anthony DeBarros. “Tariffs Are Way Up. Interest on Debt Tops $1 Trillion. And DOGE Didn’t Do Much.” Wall Street Journal. 9 Oct 2025

39. Emily Badger, David A. Fahrenthold, Alicia Parlapiano and Margot Sanger-Katz. “How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little?” New York Times. 23 Dec 2025

40. Lisa Rein, Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Natanson. “How Social Security Has Gotten Worse Under Trump.” Washington Post. 30 Dec 2025

41. Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson. “Long Waits, Waves of Calls, Website Crashes: Social Security is Breaking Down.” 25 Mar 2025
42. Hannah Fingerhut and Giovanna Dell’orto. “Prosecutor Says 14 Minnesota Programs are Targeted for Fraud and the State is Swamped With Crime.” MinnPost18 Dec 2025

43. Ernesto Londoño. “How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch.” New York Times. 7 Jan 2026

 

Straight Up Corruption

 

1. Cat Zakrzewski. “Marble, Ice Sculptures and Optics: Trump’s Remote Presidency Draws Scrutiny.” Washington Post. 3 Jan 2026
2. Devlin Barrett and Tyler Pager. “Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases.” New York Times. 21 Oct 2025
3. “Inside the Trump Family’s Global Crypto Cash Machine.” Reuters. 28 Oct 2025
4. Eric Lipton. “The Trumps Get Richer.” New York Times. 14 May 2025
5. Max Abelson and Annie Massa. “The Trump Family’s Money-Making Machine.” Bloomberg. 21 May 2025
6. Brenna T. Smith, Peter Grant and Daniel Kiss. “The Trump Organization Has Expanded Globally Since the 2024 Election. See Where.” Wall Street Journal. 2 June 2025
7. David Uberti, Juanje Gómez and Kara Dapena. “The Trump Family Business Empire Is Growing. We Mapped Out 268 Pieces of It.” Wall Street Journal. 18 Dec 2025
8. Lazaro Gamio and Amy Schoenfeld Walker. “Trump’s Tangled Web of Deal-Making, Policy and Riches.” New York Time. 31 Dec 2025
9. Alexander Osipovich and Vicky Ge Huang. Trump’s Memecoin Gala Dinner Draws Crypto Tycoons, a Basketball Star and Protests.” Wall Street Journal. 23 May 2025
10. Brian Bennett. “3 Ways Trump’s Wealth Has Soared Since He Returned to Office.” Time. 29 Dec 2025
11. Enjoli Liston. “Trump Says He Doesn’t Know Crypto Billionaire He Pardoned.” New York Times. 3 Nov 2025
12. Rebecca Ballhaus, Patricia Kowsmann, Angus Berwick, Josh Dawsey and Caitlin Ostroff. “Trump Family Has Held Deal Talks With Binance Following Crypto Exchange’s Guilty Plea.” 13 Mar 2025
13. Rebecca Ballhaus, Josh Dawsey, Patricia Kowsmann and Angus Berwick. “Trump Pardons Convicted Binance Founder.” Wall Street Journal. 23 Oct 2025
14. Louise Radnofsky and Kara Dapena. “A Visual Breakdown of Trump’s Pardon Spree.” Wall Street Journal. 10 Dec 2025
15. Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer. “If Justice Dept. Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says.” New York Times. 21 May 2025
16. Kenneth P. Vogel. “Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner.” New York Times. 27 May 2025
17. Kenneth P. Vogel and Susanne Craig. “Trump Sets Fraudster Free From Prison for a Second Time.” New York Times. 16 Jan 2026
18. Kenneth P. Vogel and Karen Yourish. “Trump Super PAC Raised More Than $100 Million in Recent Months.” New York Times. 3 Jan 2026
19. Cecilia Kang, Tripp Mickle, Ryan Mac, David Yaffe-Bellany and Theodore Schleifer. “Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends.” New York Times. 30 Nov 2025
20. Lisa Friedman. “The Trump Administration Approved a Big Lithium Mine. A Top Official’s Husband Profited.” New York Times. 3 Jan 2026
21. Eric Lipton, Michael Rothfeld, David Yaffe-Bellany and Ana Swanson. “Family Affair: Commerce Secretary’s Sons Cash In on A.I. Frenzy.” New York Times. 20 Nov 2025
22. Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Bradley Hope, Tripp Mickle and Paul Mozur “Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.” New York Times. 15 Sept 2025
23. Eliot Brown and Stephen Kalin. “Trump’s Family Is Rapidly Striking Business Deals in the Mideast.” Wall Street Journal. 12 May 2025
24. Vivian Nereim and Rebecca R. Ruiz. “Trump Organization Is Said to Be in Talks on a Saudi Government Real Estate Deal.” New York Times. 15 Nov 2025
25. David A. Fahrenthold, Jonathan O’Connell, Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey. “Secret Service Has Paid Rates as High as $650 a Night for Rooms at Trump’s Properties.” Washington Post. 7 Feb 2020
26. “G-7 at Trump Golf Resort Saves the US Money: Eric Trump.” Yahoo Finance. 17 Oct 2019
27. George Chidi. “Trump Overcharged Secret Service by 300% for Accommodations at His Hotels.” The Guardian. 18 Oct 2024
28. Dan Diamond and Victoria Bisset. “With East Wing Gone, Questions Now Turn to Trump’s Ballroom Donors.” Washington Post. 24 Oct 2025
29. Peggy Noonan. “A Republic, But Can We Keep It.” Wall Street Journal. 23 Oct 2025
30. Josh Dawsey and Alex Leary. “From Ken Griffin to Robinhood: The Donors Who Funded Trump’s Inauguration Revealed.” Wall Street Journal. 18 Apr 2025
31. Josh Dawsey and Patrick Thomas. “Some of Trump’s Biggest Inaugural Donors Benefit from Early Government Actions.” Wall Street Journal. 3 June 2025
32. Luciana Magalhaes, Samantha Pearson, and Jacob Bunge. “Meat Giant JBS’s Owner Settles U.S. Corruption Charges.” Wall Street Journal. 14 Oct 2020
33. Grace Snelling. “What Trump’s ‘Palace in the Sky’ Plane from Qatar Might Look Like.” Fast Company. 15 May 2025
34. Annie Karni. “Bill Barring Stock Trading for Congress Advances with Trump Carve-Out.” New York Times. 30 July 2025
35. Kate Kelly, Adam Playford and Alicia Parlapiano. “Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts.” New York Times. 13 Sept 2022
36. Beth Reinhard, Naftali Bendavid, Clara Ence Morse and Aaron Schaffer. “How Billionaires Took Over American Politics.” Washington Post. 21 Nov 2025
37. Chase Peterson-Withorn. “The 2025 Forbes 400 List of Wealthiest Americans: Facts and Figures.” Forbes. 9 Sept 202538. Aaron Schaffer and Clara Ence Morse. “Meet the Trump Administration’s 12 Billionaires.” Washington Post. 11 Dec 2025

 

Liberty & Justice for All

1. Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.  “World Inequality Report 2018.”  The World Inequality Lab. 2018
2. Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. “World Inequality Report 2022.” The World Inequality Lab. 2022
3. “Income Inequality.” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 30 Jan 2025
4. “The State of the American Middle Class.” Pew Research Center.  31 May 2024
5. United States. Federal Reserve System. “The State of U.S. Wealth

Inequality.” 22 Oct 2024
6. Phil Gramm and Jodey Arrington. “Welfare is What’s Eating the Budget.” Wall Street Journal. 11 Sept 2024

7. Kimberly G. Noble, Suzanne M. Houston, Natalie H. Brito, Hauke Bartsch, Eric Kan, Joshua M. Kuperman, Natacha Akshoomoff, David G. Amaral, Cinnamon S.Bloss, Ondrej Libiger, Nicholas J. Schork, Sarah S. Murray, B.J. Casey, Linda Chang, Thomas M. Ernst, Jean A. Frazier, Jeffrey R. Gruen, David N.Kennedy, Peter Van Zijl, Stewart Mostofsky, Walter E. Kaufmann, Tal Kenet, Anders M. Dale, Terry L. Jernigan and Elizabeth R. Sowell. “Family Income, Parental Education and Brain Structure in Children and Adolescents.”  Nature Neuroscience.  30 Mar 2015
8. United States. Federal Reserve System. “Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty: Changes in Racial Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances, Accessible Data.” 31 Jan 2025
9. “Wealth Gains by Income and Racial/Ethnic Groups.” National Association of Realtors. April 2023
10.  Daniel Aaronson, Daniel Hartley and Bhaskar Mazumder.  “The Effects of the 1930s HOLC ‘Redlining’ Maps.”  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.  3 Aug 2017 
11.  Jeremy S. Hoffman, Vivek Shandas and Nicholas Pendleton.  “The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 U.S. Urban Areas.”  13 Jan 2020
12. Allison Keyes. “The East St. Louis Race Riot Left Dozens Dead, Devastating a Community on the Rise.” Smithsonian Magazine. 30 June 2017

13. Nick Noel, Duwain Pinder, Shelley Stewart and Jason Wright. “The Economic Impact of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap.” McKinsey & Company. 13 Aug 2019
14. Shelley Stewart III, Michael Chui, James Manyika, JP Julien, Dame Vivian Hunt, Bob Sternfels, Lola Woetzel and Haiyang Zhang. “The Economic State of Black America: What Is and What Could Be.” McKinsey & Company. 17 June 2021
15. Jan Shelly Brown, Matthew Finney, Natasha Korgaonkar, Mark McMillan and Chris Perkins. “The Impact of Generative AI on Black Communities.” McKinsey & Company. 19 Dec 2023

16. JB Pritzker. Commencement Speech. Northwestern University. 12 June 2023

17. United States. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.  “Table A-15. Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization.”  6 June 2025
18. United States.  Bureau of Labor Statistics.  “Labor Force Participation Rate.”  6 June 2025
19. United States. Small Business Administration. “New Advocacy Report Shows the Number of Small Businesses in the U.S. Exceeds 36 million.” 30 June 2025
20. United States. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Small Businesses Contributed 55 Percent of the Total Net job Creation from 2013 to 2023.” 1 May 2024
21. Jenni Bergal. “States Raid Fund Meant for Needy Families to Pay for Other Programs.” Pew Research Center. 24 July 2020
22. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Preliminary Observations on State Budget Decisions, Single Audit Findings, and Fraud Risks.” 24 Sept 2024
23.  Abraham Lincoln.  Message to Congress.  4 July 1861
24. United States. Department of Labor. “American Job Centers.” 31 Jan 2025
25. “About.” Bank On. 31 Jan 2025

 

The Butterfly Effect in Action

1. United States. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Data Point: Credit Invisibles.” May 2015
2. United States. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Who Are the Credit Invisibles?” December 2016
3. Lisa Rice & Deidre Swesnik. “Discriminatory Effects of Credit Scoring on Communities of Color.” National Fair Housing Alliance.  
4. United States. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “What is a Payday Loan.” 28 May 2024
5. United States. Federal Reserve. “Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2023.” May 2024
6. United States. Sentencing Commission. “2023 Demographic Differences in Federal Sentencing.” 14 Nov 2023
7. Olga Khazan. “Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health.”  The Atlantic.  July/August 2018 Issue.