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

Senate majority leader Sinema caves on the Inflation Reduction Act

One person (Sinema) appears to want to hold the latest attempt to pass some form of the America Rescue bill hostage. A spokesperson for Sinema did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Without her support, Senate Democrats can’t advance the package in the 50-50 Senate over GOP resistance. The party is employing a […]

Ding, dong…..

Post written by Infidel753 as copied from his blog of the same name. The topic? Munchkin blue Kansas. Ding, dong….. Infidel753 Traditionally, Kansas has been as ruby-red as the slippers sported by its most iconic fictional inhabitant — but the state is looking a little more Munchkin-blue right now, with its voters dropping a house […]

Uninsured Healthcare rate hits an all-time low; HHS taking a victory lap

This showed up in my In Box today. Andrew Sprung at xpostfactoid is reporting on the impact of the American Rescue Plan impact healthcare. “U.S. uninsured rate hits an all-time low; Biden’s HHS takes a victory lap, ” xpostfactoid by Andrew Sprung The low rate is because of Biden and Dem’s American Rescue Plan which […]

Coronavirus dashboard for August 3: is this what endemicity looks like?

Coronavirus dashboard for August 3: is this what endemicity looks like?  – by New Deal democrat Confirmed cases nationwide (dotted line below) declined to 121,700, still within their recent 120-130,000 range. Deaths (solid line) are also steady at 431, within their recent 400-450 range as well: Hospitalizations have plateaued in the past 10 days reported […]

JOLTS report for June amplifies likelihood of substantial downturn in job growth, upturn in unemployment

JOLTS report for June amplifies likelihood of substantial downturn in job growth, upturn in unemployment Before we get to the JOLTS report for June, which was released this morning, I wanted to make a point about the overall trend in employment. Because, the two best short leading indicators for employment and unemployment are both pointing […]

Letters from an American, August 2, 2022

August 2, 2022, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Today, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to their state constitution that would have stripped it of protections for abortion rights. With 86% of the vote in, 62% of voters supported abortion protections; 37% wanted them gone. That spread is astonishing. Kansas voters […]

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, […]

Inflation as a Political Power Play Gone Wrong

Dale Coberly found this excellent analysis on economic happenings by Yanis Varoufakis. How did all of this Inflation come about? Certainly, wages have not been outstripping everything else. Labor is going to take a hit eventually. We do have supply chain issues. Much caused by countries shutting down. Companies not maintaining orders to the manufacturers […]

Ivermectin, redux

The conceit of the article on ivermectin by Hooper and Henderson I discussed in my prior post is that medical authorities – mostly the FDA, but also Merck, the maker of ivermectin – are wrongly denying that ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID.  They raise some issues that are worth discussing.  For example, they […]