Brief Review of the Economy: Press Release: US Leading Indicators. LEI for the US Increased in November CEI also Improving. LEI Three positive occurrences, today December 20, 2024.  Future economic activity increased 0.3 in November for the first monthly gain since 2022, on strength in the stock market, decreasing unemployment claims, and improvement in building permits. Conference […]

Many people including Richard S. Foster of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. and Ezra Klein predicted that the Affordable Care Act’s efforts to reduce Medicare outlays by squeezing providers would not work, because providers could opt out. I said they were wrong (fourth link here). Doctors with office practices can and do opt […]

I have a reflexive skepticism about fads. While AI isn’t exactly a fad, the relentless promotion by the media of an AI future certainly looks faddish to me. That said, there’s no question that AI is making inroads into data analysis. Watson can already read radiological images more accurately than trained radiologists. AI is transforming […]

Technically a good report. Not what they were expecting. The economy is still strong at the end of 2024. The third estimate of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2024 shows the economy grew at a 3.1% annual rate, which is higher than the 2.8% forecasted.  Factors contributing to the […]

I would say Powell is taking a cautious approach. This comes with Trump taking office and Elon tinkering by edicts. The Federal Reserve carried out its third consecutive interest rate cut of the year Wednesday, as its monetary policy easing campaign shows signs of heading for a slowdown. Following its two-day meeting, the Federal Open […]

The US is one of a small handful of countries that has a statutory limit on the federal debt. It used to be routine for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but recently, House Republicans have been using the debt ceiling to extract political concessions from Democratic Administrations. While raising the debt ceiling wasn’t in […]

November 2024 Labor Stats as you can read for yourself. I am interested in seeing how the BLS screwed up on earlier employment reports over a period of time. The graphs show part of that period of time. Everything looks like what it should be. I am not going to start a campaign on what […]

I was happy to see this in my email box. It was a treat to read it. Mr. Krugman is going to have his own substack in the future, having left the New York Times. Paul Krugman on healthcare and the DOGE or healthcare and politics. The evidence of the ACA as Krugman pints out […]

Semaglutides are turning out to be transformative for obesity in the way that statins have been transformative for hypercholesterolemia and anti-hypertensives have been transformative for high blood pressure: they’re not only highly effective but have minimal side effects. From a public health standpoint, there’s every reason to allow Medicare and Medicaid coverage for semaglutides. But […]

As typical, some will judge by the way they see things and not on the reality of the person. We did stop Repubs from filling some openings only because the sitting judges change their decisions. That was an in your face for Republicans. The politics of the era and one senator who does things to […]