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

Moody’s Analytics; cooling inflation, economic growth of 2.1% v. an economic disaster

AB: I am not sure how Republicans will sugar coat Trump’s economic plans for 2025. June 23, 2024 Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American On Thursday, Moody’s Analytics, which evaluates risk, performance, and financial modeling, compared the economic promises of President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Authors Mark Zandi, Brendan […]

Barr Deciding to Endorse trump

What Bill Barr has said about Donald Trump: In May 2023, when asked whether Trump is fit to be president at a City Club of Cleveland event in Ohio, he responded: “If you believe in his policies, what he’s advertising is his policies, he’s the last person who could actually execute them and achieve them. He […]

Changing Israel’s self-destructive course

Israel is on a dangerously self-destructive course.  The brutality of the Gaza campaign is antagonizing allies and making it difficult for regional players to continue normalizing relations.  The prospects for a durable peace are dimming at the same time that the policy of military supremacy that provided a modicum of security over the past two […]

Medicare Advantage Battling CMS over Compensation

Introduction: It appears HHS and CMS are taking action with Medicare Advantage plans and their payments to brokers selling Advantage plans. They allowed Kaiser Family Foundation healthcare to republish a Modern Healthcare article. I am lucky enough to have access to and republished at Angry Bear. According to the article, “insurers increasingly not only pay […]

“Trump’s latest notion is both economically and fiscally illiterate”

July 31, 1789, the U.S. Congress passed the last of three acts providing for administering customs tariffs and collecting duties. On the nation’s birthday, the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789, had been passed by Congress followed by the Duties on Tonnage statute on July 20. Mainly, they provided operating revenue for the government. From […]

Snail’s pace of housing market rebalancing, as existing sales remain range bound, and inventory has not increased enough to relieve pricing pressure

 – by New Deal democrat Existing home sales have very limited value in economic forecasting, since they are the trade of an existing product rather than indicating growth or contraction in the creation of a new product. Thus my main focus at present on this data is the extent to which it shows – or […]

AI for the win!

The last decade has seen many initiatives toward clean, green, and low-carbon energy, as well as a global shift toward electric vehicles and automation. Many of these initiatives were enabled rare earth magnets, which is why rare earth magnets are heavily used now and will continue to be used in the future. When my dad […]

Elections are about trust, blame, and identity.  Here’s how to use that against Trump.

According to one well-known theory of electoral competition, voters care about policies, and candidates pick policies to maximize their appeal to voters.  This suggests that campaigns will try to appeal to the median voter.  There is obviously something to this model, and this year, as always, it is a safe bet that each side will, […]