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

China Is Selling More EVs Than the US

Cars: The electric car is becoming prominent China. China registered as many as 352,000 new electric vehicles (EV) in 2016 compared to 159,000 cars registered in the US during the same time period and mostly in California. Automotive analysts suggest China’s numbers could be inflated due to subsidy cheating: but, even the lower estimates remain […]

Weekly Indicators for December 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for December 24 – 28 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators column is Up at Seeking Alpha. Ideally a change in trend in the long leading indicators should, over time, manifest in the short leading indicators. Well, in the first half of 2018, the long leading indicators went from positive […]

Real Military Pay

Real Military Pay Donald Trump lies about everything including military pay: Trump Brags To Troops About A Fictional Giant Pay Raise He Got Them – The president told military personnel in Iraq that they’ll get a raise of over 10 percent, their first in a decade. But it’s 2.6 percent, and they get a hike every […]

The Price of Naltrexone

In The New York Times Abby Goodnough wrote ” she got a Vivitrol (naltrexone) shot but it was so expensive — her co-payment was $600 — that she never got another” !!! This is insane. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist. It prevents opioids from causing a high (and relieving pain and suppressing coughing and breathing). […]

Marking my 2018 forecast to market

Marking my 2018 forecast to market At the beginning of every year, I give a forecast for each of the two halves of the year. And at the end of each year, I look back and mark my forecasts to market. In that way I try to be completely transparent, and to keep myself honest. […]

The US Postal Service in a Parallel Universe

The US Postal Service in a Parallel Universe Imagine that, instead of the dinosaur of a postal service we have today—the product, among other things, of congressional insistence that no government outfit can compete with private business in lucrative new markets—we had an entrepreneurial, innovative public dynamo.  In this other universe, the USPS was always […]

Goodbye To Goodlatte And The GOP Going From Lincoln To Trump

(Dan here…Paul Ryan’s farewell speech, Jeff Session’s targeting ‘consent decrees’, and what else?) Goodbye To Goodlatte And The GOP Going From Lincoln To Trump Outgoing Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte is my Congressman.  I even know him, having had civil almost friendly relations.  He has been in office for 26 years.  But […]

Actually, Only Banks Print Money

by Steven Roth (originally posted at Asymptosis) Actually, Only Banks Print Money I’m thinking this headline will raise some eyebrows in the MMT community. But it’s not really so radical. It’s just using the word money very carefully, as defined here. Starting with the big picture: You can compare the magnitude of these asset-creation mechanisms here. (Hint: […]

ACA Enrollment for 2019 Followup

To add to Robert Waldman’s post on ACA enrollment, here is the chart as taken from Andrew Sprung’s Blog (Expostfactoid) on the ACA. This is data Charles Gaba had gathered and Andrew rearranged. Note non-expansion Medicaid states did better than expansion states in enrollment. Why is that true? The states marked in yellow on the […]