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

New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for October 7-11

– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha.  The long end of the yield curve has steepened, and that means longer term interest rates are higher. Meanwhile the Hurricanes have played havoc with some of the high frequency data. As usual, clicking over and reading will help sort through the noise, […]

50 Years In, Most SSI Recipients Live in Poverty. That is a Policy Choice . . .

by Stephen Nuñez Roosevelt Institute Excellent piece by Stephen Nuñez on SSI and it not adjusting or growing with the changes in economic needs from 50 years ago. Indeed, for the few dollars given out, SSI appears to penalize people rather than assist them. It is ripe for a change to be more supportive of […]

September producer prices almost entirely benign; very little upward pressure in the pipeline

– by New Deal democrat Sometimes producer prices lead consumer prices; sometimes they don’t – but in the sense that sometimes there is no lag at all before increases show up in consumer prices. In any event, overall the message from the producer price index this morning was benign, with very little pressure “in the […]

Private practice docs are cutting off Medicare patients

The old model of a single doc running a practice is disappearing in America. Between the overhead and the reduced compensation, this model of health care delivery looks increasingly anachronistic. When I started as an assistant professor at a medical school in 1987, there was a lot of money sloshing around. Patients and their insurance […]

Housing Affordability in the U.S.

One of several articles I picked up on over the last few days. and decided to post at Angry Bear. Younger people are having to overextend themselves financially to buy housing. Not so different than a few decades ago. Except they are more in debt and more apt to go bankrupt due to a lost […]

It’s harder to find work and that is unacceptable

by Claudia Sahm Stay at Home Macro Companies aren’t so worried that they’re letting a lot of people go, but they’re also not so confident that they’re hiring a lot of people. This post, an excerpt from my (Sahm) new Bloomberg Opinion piece, is very important to me. I worry most about the drop in the hiring […]

September consumer inflation: headline closing in on the Fed’s target

– by New Deal democrat Today’s CPI report for September came in almost exactly as I suggested it would in my preview yesterday. To wit:  – Headline CPI continued increased 0.2% for the month, and decelerated to 2.4% YoY, its best showing since February of 2021.   – On a 3 month annualized basis, prices are […]

1st Look at Local Housing Markets in September

by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Newsletter NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to September 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available). This is the first look at several early reporting local markets in September. I’m tracking over 40 local housing markets in […]

Biden administration’s recovery package got back these jobs in less than a year and a half

I very much agree with these findings. With Trump, the nation and labor would have floundered. WE are lucky he had the wherewithal to act quickly with the right stimulus to support job growth. Two months after Dean’s post the nation is still going strong. Christmas maybe good for many. U.S. Workers are Far Better […]

Healthcare Insurance Benefits In 2024: Higher Premiums Persist

This is just a partial of a much longer commentary by Health Affairs on Employer healthcare insurance for single employees am employees with families. “Health Benefits In 2024: Higher Premiums Persist, Employer Strategies for GLP-1 Coverage and Family-Building Benefits,” Health Affairs. I have used two of the charts to emphasis what is occurring. The first […]