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Open thread Oct. 7, 2022

Dan Crawford | October 7, 2022 8:45 am

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Open thread Oct. 3, 2022, Angry Bear (angrybearblog.com)

14 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 7, 2022 at 11:17 am

NY Times – Oct 7
- The U.S. added 263,000 jobs in September as the Fed pushed to cool the economy.
- Markets fall as investors assess the state of jobs and inflation.
- Employment grew across the economy, but is leveling off in several sectors.
- Wages continued to climb, keeping the Fed on course.
- The labor participation rate was little changed.
- Is the labor market losing its sizzle?
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 7, 2022 at 11:25 am
  
  U.S. Job Growth Cools but Remains Solid
  
  Markets fall as investors assess the state of jobs and inflation
  
  Employment grew across the economy, but is leveling off in several sectors
  
  Wages continued to climb, keeping the Fed on course
  
  The labor participation rate was little changed
  
  Is the labor market losing its sizzle?
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 7, 2022 at 11:31 am
  
  The U.S. added 263,000 jobs in September as the Fed pushed to cool the economy.
  
  The labor market remained strong in September, showing its resilience. But the persistent strength in hiring also underscored the challenges facing the Federal Reserve as it tries to curtail job growth enough to tame inflation.
  
  Employers added 263,000 jobs last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday. That was down from 315,000 in August. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, from 3.7 percent a month earlier. …
  
  Labor participation was little changed in September, at 62.3 percent, around where it has hovered for the duration of the year but still below where it was before the pandemic. Wages rose 0.3 percent, matching the prior month’s gain.
  
  The Federal Reserve’s next rate decision is scheduled for Nov. 2, and officials have emphasized that the central bank is watching the jobs data closely as they determine how aggressive to be. They are eager to see evidence that interest-rate increases are cooling off a frenzied labor market, but not enough to tip the economy into a recession. …
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    October 7, 2022 at 12:10 pm
    
    Markets Fall as Investors Assess the State of Jobs and Inflation
    
    Stocks slipped, government bond yields rose and the dollar strengthened on Friday, as fresh data about the health of the labor market in the United States solidified investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will need to keep raising interest rates to lower inflation. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 7, 2022 at 11:46 am

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to activists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine

Boston Globe – Oct 7

(AP) — Activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin whose invasion of Ukraine has outraged the international community and highlighted his authoritarian rule.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel wanted to honor “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.”

“Through their consistent efforts in favor of human values and anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations, a vision most needed in the world today,” she told reporters in Oslo. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 7, 2022 at 11:50 am

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to activists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 7, 2022 at 12:12 pm
  
  (AP) — Activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin whose invasion of Ukraine has outraged the international community and highlighted his authoritarian rule.
  
  The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.
  
  Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel wanted to honor “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.” …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 7, 2022 at 11:52 am

(AP) — Activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin whose invasion of Ukraine has outraged the international community and highlighted his authoritarian rule.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel wanted to honor “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.”

“Through their consistent efforts in favor of human values and anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalized and honored Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations, a vision most needed in the world today,” she told reporters in Oslo. …
Justin Cidertrades says:

October 7, 2022 at 11:54 am

during this hideous time on Main Street it seems like the best time to shift from short to Long positions; but there are other things besides Market signals that should bother Americans.

one of those is the looming recession that will get a lot of ethnic people fired.

even with perfect judgment inside the Federal Reserve Bank both recession and runaway inflation loom ahead.

During an unusual dekadenGeist Congress needs to take unusual action. Needs to shift taxation from industry to real property. Taxation of real estate does not slow economic development but does shrink the M2 money supply thus prevent runaway inflation.

for the present, the senate needs to provide a tax holiday on payrolls, corporations, and capital gains.

Such a taxation shift is not in the cards, but should be. A special program to allow more immigration from NATO nations and Taiwan would also relieve some of the shrinking labor participation rate we now shoulder. Write to your Congress personnel
EMichael says:

October 7, 2022 at 12:02 pm

ibid

Though there is worse
- coberly says:
  
  October 9, 2022 at 11:16 am
  
  EMichael
  
  because of the way AB embeds comments, or tries to embed them, it ishard to tell if your comment is directed at Dobbs or at Justin, or even what you mean at all.
  
  Dobbs repeats comments (his own) for reasons i suxpect are related to my own problems with typos. I am sure if he could fix that, he would. Of course his comments are mostly repeats of NYT articles which is okay for me as it gets me behind the paywall. on the other hand, I have mostly given up reading any of it as it is not helpful to my sanity.
  
  Jutin on the other hand is talking nonsense of a very familiar kind. He appears to have some ideas about the way the world works that lead him to pretty simple minded ideas of how to fix the economy…whiie cutting payroll taxes? as in destroying Social Security because retirees spend too much money? or because the rest of us need to spend more money and not foolishly save it for our retirement.
  
  and your repeating “ibid” after Dobb’s comments has lost its charm.
  
  Good reason for me to go for a walk.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 7, 2022 at 12:05 pm

Another reason to ‘go long’?

US Aims to Turn Taiwan Into Giant Weapons Depot

NY Times – Oct 5

Officials say Taiwan needs to become a “porcupine” with enough weapons to hold out if the Chinese military blockades and invades it, even if Washington decides to send troops. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 8, 2022 at 10:52 am

‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions

NY Times – Oct 8

By next year, half of Medicare beneficiaries will have a private Medicare Advantage plan. Most large insurers in the program have been accused in court of fraud.

… Medicare Advantage, a private-sector alternative to traditional Medicare, was designed by Congress two decades ago to encourage health insurers to find innovative ways to provide better care at lower cost. If trends hold, by next year, more than half of Medicare recipients will be in a private plan.

But a New York Times review of dozens of fraud lawsuits, inspector general audits and investigations by watchdogs shows how major health insurers exploited the program to inflate their profits by billions of dollars. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 8, 2022 at 10:54 am
  
  The government pays Medicare Advantage insurers a set amount for each person who enrolls, with higher rates for sicker patients. And the insurers, among the largest and most prosperous American companies, have developed elaborate systems to make their patients appear as sick as possible, often without providing additional treatment, according to the lawsuits.
  
  As a result, a program devised to help lower health care spending has instead become substantially more costly than the traditional government program it was meant to improve.
  
  Eight of the 10 biggest Medicare Advantage insurers — representing more than two-thirds of the market — have submitted inflated bills, according to the federal audits. And four of the five largest players — UnitedHealth, Humana, Elevance and Kaiser — have faced federal lawsuits alleging that efforts to overdiagnose their customers crossed the line into fraud.
  
  The fifth company, CVS Health, which owns Aetna, told investors its practices were being investigated by the Department of Justice.
  
  In statements, most of the insurers disputed the allegations in the lawsuits and said the federal audits were flawed. They said their aim in documenting more conditions was to improve care by accurately describing their patients’ health.
  
  Many of the accusations reflect missing documentation rather than any willful attempt to inflate diagnoses, said Mark Hamelburg, an executive at AHIP, an industry trade group. “Professionals can look at the same medical record in different ways,” he said. …