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

Do management consultants save non-profit hospitals money?

A typical administrative response to financial difficulty in large organizations is to hire consultants. The theory is that the expertise of consultants will uncover efficiencies that will (a) relieve the difficulties and (b) repay the investment in the consultants. So how’s that working out for American nonprofit hospitals, many of which struggling and threatened with […]

The positive, noisy monthly March new home sales report masks underlying trend weakness

– by New Deal democrat New home sales, which were finally updated yesterday for March (and so still are about three weeks behind their regular schedule now 6 months after the end of the government shutdown!) are perhaps the most leading of all indicators for housing, itself a long leading indicator. In fact, they are […]

So, Where are those Cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and the ACA Subsidies Going?

The old cut taxes for the wealthy and we will have a better economy which will benefit those in the lower income brackets. The recently passed bill passed by Trump and Republicans creates a deficit in which case many in Congress will be looking for ways to alleviate such. Cuts in programs is one way […]

March JOLTS report: reverting to 2025 averages

– by New Deal democrat The JOLTS report is low on my list of useful tools, but it does break down the labor market further than the jobs report, and it does have several slightly leading components, so let’s at least take a brief look at this series, which *finally* was updated to its normal […]

This is Why Congress Should Enjoy the Same Bennies as Labor

Secretary Rollins was trying to convince Americans they could survive on $3 a meal, which included “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli [and] a corn tortilla.” AB: I do not know about you, that would be a tough go for me. Think about a McDonald’s burger and fries for $3? Such meals are […]

SNAP Program in Arizona is Decreasing Due to Republican Politics

The mean part of this is the politics in the decrease of SNAP to people who obviously need it and who go through a qualification program. For example, in AZ this is the start of the Qualification Process: As you can see to the right, the initial page of the registration is detailed in asking […]

Economically weighted ISM services + manufacturing indexes strongly stagflationary

– by New Deal democrat We got a bunch of data this morning. I’ll discuss the JOLTS employment data from last month, and the ISM services report today. Since new home sales are a long leading indicator, I think I can safely wait to discuss that report tomorrow. Let me start with the ISM services report […]

Retaliation is Not a Strategy,

Trump Threatening Europe . . . Kareem Takes on the News, Substack Retaliation is Not a Strategy A Summary:  The Pentagon announced on May 1, 2026, it would withdraw approximately 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany within the next six to twelve months> this beginning a move that followed a public dispute between President Donald Trump […]

Affordability continues to be the main financial challenge for U.S. households

I get weary of listening to the constant blame game of Biden did this or that and we were paying for it in this presidency, A convenient way for Trump to hide and Republicans to blame the past presidency. It is B.S. “The post-pandemic recovery is an economic policy success story: Policymakers took the best […]

Population Decline

This decrease has been a long time coming. In 2006. population growth was at breakeven. I documented this in “population is growing at the rate of almost 1 percent per year, Angry Bear. Joel Garreau wrote the article in Smithsonian “300 Million and Counting” and It was in 2006 when the United States was at […]