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

The semaglutide camel’s nose under the Medicare tent

Obesity is a risk factor for cancer, heart disease stroke and diabetes. Thus, drugs like semaglutides (Wegovy, Ozempic) don’t just reduce weight in the obese, they also reduce risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes, which are huge health care burdens. It’s good to see that Medicare is finally coming to grips with this […]

Travelin’ man: Weekly Indicators for April 1 – 5 2024 at Seeking Alpha

– by New Deal democrat I neglected to post this over the weekend, so I will post it now…. Weekly Indicators: The Coincident Indicators Say ‘Soft Landing Is Here.’ – Long Leading Indicators Show Improvement – Short Leading Indicators are showing mixed results. – Coincident Indicators suggest a Soft-Landing scenario for 2024. “My “Weekly Indicators” update […]

Thoughts while visiting the US

Some thoughts: There are many mentions in this commentary by David, I find true and factual. Much of my time in Europe and Asia was working, eating, and traveling with the residents of these countries and staying in their hotels. Not for just a few days, but weeks at a time. Europeans would place me […]

Small scale carbon capture

EVs are certainly proliferating, not only here in East Providence but all over the planet. However, Hertz’ retreat from the rental market demonstrates the challenges facing companies with large fleets of vehicles. Hertz cuts EV fleet by a third Trucking companies have a lot invested in their diesel engine-powered truck fleets, and of course, many […]

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 […]