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

Seafood says global warming is not a hoax

Trump and his minions may not believe in global warming, but people whose livelihoods depend on understanding climate change—bankers, insurance companies and the military—know it’s real. So do non-humans whose livelihoods are compromised by climate change: “Native fish populations will likely continue their decline off of Massachusetts’ coast, while species from further south will move […]

Questionable Use of Health Risk Assessments Drives Costs

“Medicare Advantage: Questionable Use of Health Risk Assessments Continues to Drive Up Payments to Plans by Billions,” Office of Inspector General | Government Oversight | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Why OIG Did This Review Medicare Advantage (MA) companies receive higher risk-adjusted payments from CMS for enrollees who are sicker, which helps to […]

Tax cuts for the rich only increase wealth disparity

No, the 1% aren’t the job creators—that’s the middle class and working class. Tax cuts for the 1%, of course, don’t create jobs, they just create greater wealth disparity: “The authors set out to examine all instances of major tax reductions on the rich in 18 OECD countries between 1965 and 2015 and identify the […]

October consumer Inflation firms, driven – as usual – by Shelter

 – by New Deal democrat Today’s CPI report for October generally showed stable monthly increases, but slight increases in YoY comparisons. But as usual, it was almost all about the usual culprit of shelter, as more fully parsed below; to wit:  – Headline CPI increased 0.2% for the month, the fourth month in a row […]

The economics of deportation

The Trump administration is threatening to deport >10 million people. These are people who, regardless of their immigration status, are contributing to the economy and jobs by purchasing goods and service (“job creators”) and contributing to social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, if they are undocumented, they will never see benefits to the […]

What the Democrats Do Now

Atlantic’s Lora Kelley asks “What Do Democrats Do Now?” Or sorta like that. Trump is such a great story teller and caster of false narratives. People were looking for what they thought would be solutions to what they perceive as issues during and coming out of the pandemic. Maybe a recession would have been better […]