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

The Week Ahead

Joyce Vance @ Civil Discourse This is not going to be one of those ho-hum, just like any other week kind of weeks. Over the weekend, Donald Trump talked about the size of Arnold Palmer’s penis and called Kamala Harris a “shit vice president” while an adoring crowd cheered. Harris’ response? She told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, “the American people deserve so […]

Candidates’ Stances on Healthcare Issues, including Drug Pricing, Medicaid and AI

The article is talking around the issues. The country is calling on former drug company management to assist in taking down an industry giant. It probably will not succeed as many of these experts still have ties to the industry and the companies employing them. Think Azar . . . Pharma companies were using “value-based” […]

Medicare Doctor Payment System is Not Keeping Up with Inflation

There is a story here somewhere, I have to look at it a bit closer in what Medicare is doing. As you can see expenditures in the US are double or more than what occurs in other countries. Yet, the US life expectancy is less than other countries. It appears there is a cut which […]

Sites and Claims Creating a False Narrative Attributed Kamala Harris’s Campaign

Josh Marshall at TPM gives the details on an Elon Musk-funded PAC targeting Jewish and Arab communities. Elon Musk’s Fake Sites and Fake Texts Impersonating the Harris Campaign I can see this type of targeting playing well in the city of Detroit where there are large communities of both Jewish and Arab communities . . […]

More on Arizona Politics and one particular representative

And Arizona has its share of nut-jobs too. One representative is more interested in controlling the lives of others. In particular those being the lives of women. And yes, one representative is making the right of women to control their lives an issue in Arizona. This is much like those creatures of control found in […]

3rd Look at Local Housing Markets in September

– by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Newsletter NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to September 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available). This is the third look at several early reporting local markets in September. I’m tracking over 40 local housing markets […]

An Admission of Guilt in Medicare Advantage Healthcare

The message can not get any clearer than what is being stated by CVS management. The discussion now being had is things will be better in 2025. Kind of doubtful as MedPac zeroes in on Medicare Advantage plans. I suspect more will be done to rein in MA plans. Read on and also the article. […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for October 14 – 18

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. As per the analysis of monthly data that I wrote about this week, hurricane season continued to complicate the high frequency data as well. With that very big caveat, the underlying tone remained positive. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring […]

California dreaming

I’ve been to California a few times, for scientific meetings, for vacation and once for a friend’s wedding. I’ve had a good experience each time. It has always struck me as an expensive place to live, though, and I’m definitely not a beach person. Elon Musk is warning us that the nation will become “Californicated” […]