A story . . . Supplier working relationships were always tough in automotive. A lot of politicking going there, lunches, dinners, etc. Kind of difficult to walk a straight line with them and maintain an ethical standard. Yet, I did and was known for doing what I said I would do. I worked for several […]

Piercing the myth: How privatizers got their mitts on Medicare, The Stand, Kip Sullivan Insurance companies decried Medicare’s fee-for-service model. But then Congress let them replace it with something much worse. (May 4, 2023) — Congress enacted Medicare in 1965 as a fee-for-service system because the insurance industry did not want to insure the elderly […]

When I read this (third article below), I thought of an earlier commentary by one of our peer-reviewed economists. This is what Robert Waldman had to say: “Investors are glad to pay the Treasury to keep their wealth safe. Now consider the US Federal Government intertemporal budget constraint — the present value of spending must […]

My old Michigan standby on the PPACA. If there was something I needed to know, I could always count on Charles knowing the answer. I believe some of the state and federal politicians also relied on Charles for information. What is also kind of cool is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issuing a directive on Medicaid […]

I had read the JAMA Network version of this report although I could not get into the Full Text version. You can find a more open version by using a New in Private Window. Cliff notes . . . the polluting company paid for moving the people. In which, the health of the people, the […]

A long and good NYT take on why poverty continues to exist, stays stagnant or continues to grow in one of the richest nations in the world and the most capable of all to end poverty. A good read. “Those who have amassed the most power and capital bear the most responsibility for America’s vast […]

What I like about this Issue-Brief is the use of terminology we see, not knowing what it means, and seeing a description or definition. I have added links so as to do a deeper dive into the terminology. Carefully read, a person can garner an understanding of initial drug costs, intermediate costs, discounts, and what […]

Joseph Stiglitz is calling for an honest and open debate on the debt ceiling and future expenditures and whether there is any relationship between the two. He states the expansion of the debt ceiling has no relationship between it and laws having future expenditures. The debt ceiling has no bearing on legal expenditures. It is […]

Democracy Alerts – Democrats Reintroduce Bill to Expand U.S. Supreme Court – Democracy Docket, I am certain this bill will not pass in the House. In any case, it puts SCOTUS on alert as to their politics. I would like to see Congress develop a code of ethics for SCOTUS which might go further than […]

Why hasn’t he been here? It was maybe a decade ago when I was working for Stone Ridge, an automotive company. I was in Boston visiting a plant and picking up on their purchasing of connectors I was also cost modeling those connectors. While there, I took an evening to meet Dan Crawford for the […]