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

New home sales rebound, but downtrend in sales intact; prices continue to climb

New home sales rebound, but downtrend in sales intact; prices continue to climb In response to April’s dismal report, I wrote that “new home sales are heavily revised after the first report. It is not unusual at all for big monthly moves like this to suddenly look much less severe when the number gets revised […]

Chaos Theory and The End of Roe V Wade

“Chaos Theory and The End of Roe V Wade,” Econospeak, Barkley Rosser Probably the most famous characteristic of chaotic dynamics is the phenomenon known formally as sensitive dependence on initial conditions, which is more popularly known as the “butterfly effect.” In such dynamics a small change in a starting value or a parameter value can […]

Resurrecting the metric: initial claims lead the unemployment rate

Resurrecting the metric: initial claims lead the unemployment rate; no recession signal so far  Initial jobless claims declined -2,000 to 229,000 last week, vs. the 50+ year low of 166,000 set in March. The 4 week average rose from 4,500 to 223,500, compared with the all-time low of 170,500 eleven weeks ago.  Continuing claims rose […]

Healthcare, Oil, and SCOTUS Dominates the News

It has been a while since I have listed news articles. Healthcare, Oil, and SCOTUS topics are dominating news today. Colorado is kicking of a Public Option. If successful, it will greatly benefit citizens there. Oil and gasoline are big issues. When taking into consideration inflation, the price today of a gallon of gasoline is […]

Yeah, and Democrats Stormed the Capitol!!!

Listen to Chris Christi babbling to David Muir about the 2000 election and Al Gore losing to Bush. In the same breath, Chris is saying similar about Clinton’s loss to the soon-to-be insurrectionist trump in 2016. Trying, trying to draw a comparison to Democrats losing to Repubs in 2000 and 2016 and their showing just […]

Producer Prices Up and Record Increase for Final Demand Goods

RJS, MarketWatch 666 ~~~~~~~ Summary: Producer Prices Rose 0.8% in May; Record Annual Increase of 16.6% for Final Demand Goods The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.8% in May, as average prices for finished wholesale goods rose by 1.4% while final demand for services was 0.4% higher. The increase followed a revised […]

Housing unaffordability closes in on bubble peaks

Housing unaffordability closes in on bubble peaks; expect substantial price declines and increased foreclosures in the likely oncoming recession – by New Deal democrat I last looked at the issue of housing affordability at the beginning of April. As we all know, mortgage rates have continued to skyrocket in the past several months. At present […]

SCOTUS Rebuffs United Healthcare Medicare Advantage

This is an interesting result I ran across in MSN as taken from Reuters. Both Kip Sullivan and I have written about Medicare Advantage plans over coding patients, resulting in overcharges to CMS Medicare. “Why is CMS Overpaying United Healthcare Medicare Advantage Plans?” – Angry Bear, “Medicare Advantage and Medicare Issues” – Angry Bear, “Kip […]