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

Value-based payment has produced little value. It needs a time-out

Kip Sullivan sent this article to me today. Usually, I find them before he sends them to me. A quick introduction to the topic of this article. Billions of dollars are being spent on value-based ACO programs. They have done little to improve Americans’ health or lower health care costs. As the authors point out, […]

The Bonddad Blog: Weekly Indicators for July 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha

Weekly Indicators for July 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. There have been some interesting counter-trend movements in the indicators. For example, interest rates on mortgages have declined by more than 1% since their peak one month ago. Gas prices have declined by […]

Real income continued to fall in June, while consumers dug deeper to spend

Real income continued to fall in June, while consumers dug deeper to spend  – by New Deal democrat In June personal income rose 0.6% nominally, and nominal spending rose 1.1%. The personal consumption deflator, i.e., the relevant measure of inflation, clocked in at 1.0%, meaning real income fell -0.4%, while real personal spending rose 0.1%. […]

Jumping in Peabody’s Wayback Machine on a Saturday Night

“Peabody’s Improbable History” Making a short trip in the Wayback Machine to October 2019.   We are going to a right-wing “AMPFests” at one of former president thump’s golf clubs, the National Doral. And we are looking for two trump conspirators having a discussion with one another. One of them has a wire recording device […]

Republicans block funding helping veterans exposed to toxic burn pits

Jim Hannan brought this issue up in AB comments section. Been too busy trying to get myself healthy again. Just unbelievable. Republicans want to cut out mandatory spending for veterans. This would be another time where politicians have used “veterans in need” to pursue their own political agenda. Vietnam vets saw similar issues. The Bush […]

Coronavirus dashboard for July 27: likely at or past the BA.4&5 peak

Coronavirus dashboard for July 27: likely at or past the BA.4&5 peak Let’s start with Biobot, since wastewater doesn’t lie. The bad news is, that it shows a nearly 50% increase between June 29 and July 20. The good news is, in the last week of that period, between July 13 and July 20, it […]

Assorted News on Various Topics

A collection of interesting reads, news, and articles from the last week. Healthcare “Fauci to Retire by End of Biden’s First Term” (medscape.com), “Biden’s chief medical officer (Fauci), who has also been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, told Politico he is not planning to wait for COVID-19 to […]

For Peat’s Sake

“Peatlands cover only a small fraction of the Earth’s surface (3%), yet store more than 15%–30% of terrestrial carbon (C) stocks” One of the terrible tipping points is oxidation of Peat due to warming (another is release of methane from melting tundra). But one key question is why didn’t the carbon in peat turn to […]