Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

When People will not be Judged by the Color of their Skin, But On Where Their Ancestors Were Judged by the Color of their Skin

The Wall Street Journal had a piece that made reference to this story in the Cornell Daily Sun: Martha E. Pollack, nearing the six-month mark of her presidency, is facing her first major test at Cornell after hundreds of black students, responding to the arrest of a student who may be charged with a hate crime, […]

Odds and Ends October 23, 2017

Hurricane Relief: Interesting developments going on in the Senate. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) is taking to task administration officials and conservative movement leaders by holding up the confirmation of Russ Vought as the right hand man to Mick Mulvaney’s at the Office of Management and Budget. Wonder why he would do this? Apparently Senator Coryn […]

Now Amazon wants to break the bank

Now Amazon wants to break the bank On Thursday (October 19), the first stage of the Amazon sweepstakes for a second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” was completed as cities submitted their bids to the Internet giant. With a possible $5 billion investment and eventually 50,000 jobs at salaries over $100,000, this is one of the very […]

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s Forked Tongue on Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s Forked Tongue on Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Shortly before the inauguration, Steve Mnuchin discussed the incoming administration’s tax plans and announced the Mnuchin Rule–that “[a]ny reductions we have in upper-income taxes will be offset by less deductions so that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class.”   EXCLUSIVE: […]

The Sharing Economy – Including the @$$holes

A friend of mine who has made it into his sixth decade without ever sullying himself with gainful employment is now doing deliveries, shared-economy style. (Packages, not people via Uber or Lyft.) I thought he was going to rail against the system when he described what is new in his life, but his attitude surprised […]

Labor Market Slack and Weak Wage Growth

by Hale Stewart (originally published at Bonddad blog) Labor Market Slack and Weak Wage Growth From the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook: Sluggishness in core inflation in advanced economies—a surprise in view of stronger than expected activity—has coincided with slow transmission of declining unemployment rates into faster wage growth. Real wages in most large advanced […]

Cost Sharing Reductions and the Constitution

Republican Representatives who sued the Obama administration, Judge Rosemarry Collyer who decided they were right, Donald Trump and lawyers representing the Trump administration argue that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can not compensate insurance companies for the expence of cost sharing reductions (CSRs) for people with income under 250% of the poverty […]

New Bill to Restore the ACA CSR

Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) “Unless they are replaced with something else temporarily, there will be chaos in this country and millions of Americans will be hurt.” Twelve Republicans and 12 Democrats signed on to the bill, which would continue ObamaCare’s insurer subsidies for two years and give states more flexibility to waive […]

“Hurricane adjusting” initial claims has proven its value

“Hurricane adjusting” initial claims has proven its value For the last month, I deduced a “hurricane adjusted” number for initial claims, which showed that the previous underlying positive trend was intact, with the four week average remaining in the 230,000’s. That approach was borne out by this week’s report, which, at 222,000, was the lowest […]

Silicon Valley is not your friend

Vis New York Times Growth becomes the overriding motivation — something treasured for its own sake, not for anything it brings to the world. Facebook and Google can point to a greater utility that comes from being the central repository of all people, all information, but such market dominance has obvious drawbacks, and not just […]