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

Labeling Food Products for Profits

Labeling for Increased Profits, Farmer and Economist, Michael Smith It is a well-known marketing ploy to label, relabel, and even mislabel a product again and again to increase sales. We think of the almighty Coke and the multiple iterations that they have had just on their cans. We’ve also seen consumer products like paper towels […]

Increasing Hospital Prices and Insurance Payments Lead to Higher Costs

Why Hospitals and Health Insurers Didn’t Want You to See Their Prices – The New York Times (nytimes.com) Sarah Kliff and Josh Katz Some Background Tipping the balance to single payer? I believe Kliff and Tucker article in the NYT Times on hospitals and insurance helps to tip the balance. It is revealing to see […]

The Rule of Law might have been Overturned Today

Roe v. Wade hasn’t been overturned. The rule of law might have been; The Washington Post, Erwin Chemerinsky Dean at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky; “The majority was mute on the right to privacy, abandoned its constitutional role and held, indirectly but unmistakably, that the Constitution is a mere […]

A Modest Proposal

Really modest and meant seriously (apologies to Swift). All Senators and Representatives get a full pension for their natural lives (equal to salary) They may never ever receive any money from any entity other than the Federal Government. No salary and all investments must be in Treasury securities (oh and nooo royalties – ever). No […]

COVID vaccines and durable protection

As debates about booster shots heat up, what is known about the duration of vaccine-based immunity is still evolving. Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Joel participated in the early trials of the Moderna mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. He was inoculated with the true vaccine as determined by […]

Are Former Professors As National Leaders More Prone To Black Swan Events That Overthrow Their Governments?

Are Former Professors As National Leaders More Prone To Black Swan Events That Overthrow Their Governments?  Probably not, but recent events in Afghanistan suggest an example.  This would be the sudden departure just over two weeks ago on Aug. 15 from Kabul of then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which triggered the sudden collapse of his […]

Healthcare News Clips Taken from My In-Box

Physician signing bonuses reach $240,000, ASCs promote long term ROI (beckersasc.com) While the median physician signing bonus was $29,656, physicians on the high end of the spectrum were offered $240,000 or more. While signing bonuses at the high end of the spectrum were around $140,000 more than they were in 2019-20, they were down from […]

Why washing your hands and social distancing works

Prof. Linda Eissenberg, Ph.D., is a scientist at Washington University School of Medicine who spent more than two decades studying microbial pathogens. She now works in oncology as an assistant professor of internal medicine. “Why washing your hands and social distancing works”, St. Louis Post – Dispatch, Apr 4, 2020 What you really need to […]

Natural infection versus Vaccination

Commenter and blogger, Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  In the unceasing effort by the Right to politicize and weaponize the COVID-19 pandemic, some politicians have seized on a recent paper from Israel claiming that natural infection provides better protection than two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Setting aside the orders of magnitude difference […]

July Durable Goods: New Orders Down 0.1%, Shipments Up 2.2%, Inventories Up 0.6%

July Durable Goods: New Orders Down 0.1%, Shipments Up 2.2%, Inventories Up 0.6%, Commenter and also Blogger at MarketWatch 666 The Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for July (pdf) from the Census Bureau reported the value of the widely watched new orders for manufactured durable goods fell by $0.4 billion or […]