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

Three days of deliberations after Eight Weeks of Trial . . . a Conviction

“November 29, 2022,” Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Today, after an eight-week trial and three days of deliberations, a jury of five women and seven men found Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, 57, the founder and leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers gang, and Kelly Meggs, 53, who led the Florida chapter of […]

House price indexes continue to show the top is in

– by New Deal democrat House price indexes continue to show the top is in The FHFA and Case Shiller house price indexes were reported this morning, with both continuing to show that the peak in house prices took place during the summer. For the month, the seasonally adjusted FHFA index rose +0.1%, vs. a […]

Are railroads to blame for the rail strike threat?

Just doing a review of the potential strike being by railroad workers. To sum up the issue(s), proposed wage increases barely keep up with inflation, health care premiums nearly doubling, and a lack of paid sick days in the agreement. It doesn’t sound like that much of a big deal. More in a bit. In […]

The Struggle for Hegemony

by Joseph Joyce The Struggle for Hegemony The restrictions by the Biden administration on the sale of semiconductor chips and the equipment to manufacture them represent a new stage in the division between China and the U.S. The belief that increased trade would lead to a convergence of Chinese and U.S. interests faded years ago. The history […]

Still signs that a bottoming process might be taking place

New home sales adjusted for cancellations: still signs that a bottoming process might be taking place by NewDeal democrat I had a correspondent question me about whether new home sales might actually be in the process of bottoming, due to the big increase in the percentage of cancellations, as shown below (via Bill McBride): This […]

From the frontiers of viral immunology

Ever since the COVID mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) proved themselves, I became convinced they are the future of viral vaccines. Looks like a polyvalent flu vaccine is in the works that may obviate annual strain-specific vaccines. “In this work, we developed a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA)–lipid nanoparticle vaccine encoding hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 […]

Medicare Advantage Healthcare and FFS Medicare

Medicare Advantage Over Payments In the conclusive summation of the latest KFF report on Medicare Advantage Healthcare plans which KFF also has in place, is this: Historically, one goal of the Medicare Advantage program was to leverage the efficiencies of managed care to reduce Medicare spending. However, the program has never generated savings relative to traditional Medicare. […]

“Slouching Towards Utopia”

Book Review: “Slouching Towards Utopia,” J. Bradford DeLong, (foreignaffairs.com), Liaquat Ahamed I am not going to put all of the review of Brad’s book Slouching Towards Utopia here. I thought I would alert AB readers to it and point to the freebie (for me at least and I believe you too) review at Foreign Affairs. […]

Poor Healthcare Outcomes Resulting from Discrimination

Introduction to a Real World Issue: Taken from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Health (NIAID) headed by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci. Health disparities are gaps in the quality of health and health care mirroring differences in socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic background, and education level. These disparities may stem from many factors, […]