Recently, Anthem BCBS rescinded its policy of limiting the amount of anesthesia it would pay for during operations. The policy conjured images of patients waking up before the end of their operations, or later being confronted with unexpected bills. But allegedly, that’s not the intent: “Anesthesia services are billed partially on the basis of how […]

Excellent recital on Russia by “Infidel at Infidel753“ Very often, those who understand an empire best are those who are subjugated by its power, or until recently were so.  A slave has a strong incentive to know the master’s whims and cruelties and strengths and weaknesses; he may well suffer greatly if he misjudges those […]

 – by New Deal democrat No economic news again today. Tomorrow we will get the CPI report for November. As to which, I have read a few posts in which the claim is made that inflation, especially core inflation, is picking up again. It certainly could happen, but in my opinion the evidence for such a […]

I’m old enough to remember Russia as the mother country to the Soviet Union. While the USSR was never a world-class economic power, it did punch above its weight as a military power under Stalin and for a couple decades after. Russia under Putin has been described as a gas station with an Army. Its […]

 – by New Deal democrat Most of the commentary about Friday’s jobs report for November was positive. By contrast, my summary – in which I averaged the two last reports to take into account the hurricane whipsaw – was much more cautious, as were the takes by a few other commentators I respect, like Ernie Tedeschi. […]

I believe it was about 4-5 years ago, we decided to move from our of 2600 square feet on 2/3rds of an acre. We also wanted to get to some place warmer. We did eventually do both and not exactly where we wanted. The first year we went exploring in the areas around Phoenix and […]

This is something Angry Bear has been following for a few years. A person may go to the doctor for one issue and the office wants to expand the visit to other supposed issues. An example being having a comprehensive blood test two months previous and their wanting to repeat the same blood test. The […]

We often talk about poverty and people living in poverty as measured by the government, Then, we set policy with regards to them. We never quite realize the impact of the programs on the people on the receiving end. A brief recital of facts and figures in charts. I also do not believe we get […]

Robert Kutner has a paywalled article in The New York Review of Books about the history of free trade and the efforts since Trump’s first term to impose tariffs, particularly on China, beginning with the first Trump Administration. “Free trade ideology once aligned with America’s economic and security interests. After World War II, open markets […]

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. This week whipsawed the data that was heavily influenced by Thanksgiving week.  The tone of the short leading and coincident data remains positive. The negativity of much of the long leading data is becoming more problematic. As usual, clicking over and reading […]