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

A quick note on the Medicare cuts

Better explanation on the “One Big Beautiful Bill” impacts Medicare by Merrill Goozner at GoozNews. It hits providers and insurers directly, not beneficiaries. People need to be educated about the impact — not the $500 billion number. I’m no defender of the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on the American people by the House Republicans’ […]

International Travel with Trump as the President

At this particular point in time, I would forestall any travel to Europe for work or vacation. My German cohorts were always somewhat cautious around myself and others. Herr Trump and his band of sycophants have caused serious damage to the US imagine and relationship. The same as Trump, they would be suspicious. They will […]

Book Review: “The End of the World is Just the Beginning”

A repost from “The one-handed economist” site Review: The End of the World is Just the Beginning – The one-handed economist KA recommended this 2022 book, and I was very much interested in the thesis of its author, Peter Zeihan, i.e., that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and that the US will come […]

Pushing the “Big Beautiful Bill” . . .

Getty’s Kevin Dietech snapped this picture of Republican Majority Leader Mike Johnson peering over his shoulder as he enters a meeting. Or what looks like a meeting. One of several authors writes it is a House Rules Committee Meeting. And probably about Trumps “Big Beautiful Bill.” “The Devastating Harms of House Republicans’ Big, ‘Beautiful’ Bill […]

New home sales make 3 year high as price pressures for existing homes abate and inventory increases

  – by New Deal democrat Since new and existing home sales were released just one day apart, I figured I would report on both of them together; in particular because for well over a year I have been looking for, and tracking, the rebalancing of this market, where a lack of inventory of existing homes […]

What you need to share about the “one big beautiful” ugly horrible bill

I subscribe to Robert Reich’s site also. The old economist as he calls himself asks that subscribers publish this particular commentary of Roberts, He is attempting to publish more information above Trumps tax cut bill. I can vouch for question 1 as I posted on how a cut in Medicare could happen. Robert is claiming […]

The Bond Market is Not Amused: on the importance of Moody’s debt downgrade and the GOP budget bill

 – by New Deal democrat Today let me address the GOP bust-out budget bill, and how that plays into Moody’s downgrade of US debt last week. And the bottom line is that, it is bad. The rubber is starting to hit the road. Let me start out with the below graph from the CBO of the […]

Cuts to Medicaid and maybe Medicare

Briefly, a fast read . . . Trumps extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is a $3.8 trillion extension of it which will mostly benefit the wealthy and corporations. Professor Heather at “Letters from an American” (to which I subscribe) had this to say yesterday about the extension current being passed […]

Jobless claims: more of the same old, same old

 – by New Deal democrat The story continues to be “same old, same old” with unemployment claims. Initial claims declined -2,000 last week to 227,000. The four week moving average rose 1,000 to 231,500. With the typical one week delay, continuing claims rose 36,000 to 1.903 million: The YoY story continues to be the same as […]