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

Private equity is killing us

American hospitals are under siege. The Trump administration just announced an increase from $1500 to $100,000 per year for H-1B visas that are used by foreign-trained physicians. The recently passed GOP budget dramatically cuts Medicaid funding, cuts that will drive the closure of many rural and community hospitals that are on the edge of insolvency. […]

Two Industries Which Would Be Better-off if Modernized

Trump administration’s tariffs on U.S. imports are passing through the supply chains and ending up impacting the consumers wallet in the form of increasing prices. There is no way to avoid these increases in the US. These are two industries which are disproportionately worse-off, I am familiar with due to my experience in manufacturing. They […]

Trump’s newest attack on rural hospitals

The Trump GOP’s Medicaid cuts will cause many rural hospitals to close. Now, Trump has come up with a way to hasten that process. “NBC News medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta warned of the consequences that President Donald Trump’s imposed $100,000 annual visa fee for highly skilled foreign workers could have on those seeking health […]

New Deal democrat’s Weekly Indicators for September 15 – 19

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Along with the continuing resilience of consumer spending, which I wrote about yesterday, the other surprise in the data has been the strong rebound in manufacturing indexes in the past 45 days, as evidenced by several of the regional Fed situation reports […]

The AI stock price bubble and consumer spending Ponzi loop?

 – by New Deal democrat One of this things that has puzzled me for the last few months is why consumer spending has remained so strong in the face of so many headwinds in the economy, some from horrible policy coming out of Washington, some embedded in the long leading and short leading sectors.  There is […]

Beachfront property and sunk costs

While we were grad students at UNC-Chapel Hill, we visited my wife’s uncle and his family on the Outer Banks. He built fishing boats, and lhey lived in a modest house in Buxton, near Hatteras lighthouse. Hatteras lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in the US. In 1999, Hatteras lighthouse was moved from its original location […]

Jobless claims continue higher YoY trend

– by New Deal democrat We are in the part of the year when, post-Covid, likely residual seasonality has resulted in a declining trend in new jobless claims.  Not this year. On a week over week basis, initial jobless claims did decline -33,000 from last week’s outlier 264,000 to 231,000, and the four week averaged declined […]

The Kimmel firing was strictly business

Look, I haven’t watched TV in over 20 years. I’ve never seen a Superbowl game in my life, and the only time I’ve seen Jimmy Kimmel is clips on Youtube. So I can’t boycott Disney because I wasn’t patronizing them in the first place. Anyway, Bob Iger cares about stockholders first, last and always. “If […]

Schumer not folding?

According to Punchbowl News, via Political Wire, Schumer sounds like he is going to hang tough in budget negotiations.  I think it is possible Democrats could win a shutdown fight, although the most knowledgeable political observers disagree.  But if this is real, not political theater for angry base voters, then the Democrats should have a […]

August housing construction: even more recessionary than before

– by New Deal democrat A puzzling relationship this year has been that the housing data has been classically recessionary for a number of months, and yet the economy has not rolled over. And this morning’s dismal report on housing construction was even more recessionary.  Let’s start with the most dismal number of all: permits […]