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

Arizona’s HB-2648 will Kill the Predatory Practices of Arizona HOA Attorneys

Some Background and History If you ever move to Arizona around Phoenix and maybe even further out, you are probably going to end up in a development which has a Home Owner’s Association (HOA). My experience with HOAs is mostly positive as the Pres. and the Board Members lived in the same subdivision as we […]

Next generation mRNA vaccines

In 2020, I was a subject in the Moderna phase III trial for their COVID mRNA vaccine. At the same time, Pfizer-BioNTec trialed a similar mRNA vaccine. Both mRNA vaccines proved highly successful. In both cases, chemically modified mRNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is injected, programming cells that receive the mRNA to produce and […]

March jobs report: almost uniformly positive, making a “soft landing” the default 2024 scenario

In sum, this month’s report was very much consistent with a “soft landing” scenario, which must be regarded as the default outcome at this point. Read-on for the details . . . – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog In the past few months, my focus has been on whether jobs gains are most consistent […]

Decline in continuing claims, stability in initial claims suggest downward pressure on the unemployment rate

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog Initial claims in the last week rose 9,000 to 221,000, while the four week moving average increased 2,750 to 214,250. With the usual one week lag, continuing claims declined 19,000 to 1.791 million: On the more important YoY% basis for forecasting purposes, initial claims are up 2.3%, while […]

What happened in Richmond won’t stay in Richmond: OIG audits the first RPDC

by Steve Hutkins Save the Post Office AB: I have been involved in multiple, many, etc. systems implementations over the years. They need careful upfront planning with users to understand what may work best and have a foundation in mind before you move forward with an implementation. PG Louis DeJoy has never worked in a […]

What Social Security isn’t

There has always been a lot of misinformation and frank dishonesty surrounding Social Security. Here are three things that Social Security isn’t: 1. A retirement investment. Social Security is insurance. It is not meant to be your sole source of income after retirement (although for many Americans, it basically is). Social Security is not a […]

Tobacco without smoking

When I was in college, I took up pipe smoking. I particularly enjoyed Turkish Latakia tobacco and Native Cigarettes, smoked through a long-stemmed church warden clay pipe. But shortly after I got married, my wife told me to stop. Smoking is a particularly dangerous nicotine delivery system. Nowadays, there is vaping, which some see as […]

February JOLTS report: soft landing-ish? – except for a noisy jump in layoffs

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog The JOLTS report for February showed stabilization or slight improvement to all but one of its components, generally suggesting, well, stabilization in the overall jobs market. Starting with the monthly changes, job openings (blue in the graph below), a soft statistic that is polluted by imaginary, permanent, and […]