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

August JOLTS report: a pause in deceleration, but the trend remains intact

August JOLTS report: a pause in deceleration, but the trend remains intact  – by New Deal democrat Last month I concluded my post on the July JOLTS report’s sharp declines by noting that “None of these statistics move in a straight line, so it would be a mistake to project this report’s relatively big moves […]

Manufacturing and construction have the most positive reports all year

Manufacturing and construction have the most positive reports all year  – by New Deal democrat As usual, the monthly data starts out with reports on the two most important production sectors of the economy, namely manufacturing (for September) and construction (for August). For a change, the news was mainly positive. Let’s start with manufacturing. The […]

Part 2 of Saving Rural Hospitals – Problems and Solutions for Rural Hospitals

I broke this report into two parts as it becomes harder to complete reading when each of us has other obligations. CHQPR or the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform is a national policy center facilitating improvements in healthcare payment and delivery systems. As explained earlier in Part 1, rural hospitals are facing issues […]

F-35 Maintenance Costs

$42,000 per flight hour that’s 7 switchblade drones per hour. It raises the question of whether the F35 would be cost effective if we got the planes for free (not $80,000,000 each ). Currently F35s manage on average 11.2 flight hours per critical failure (I got that one partly from memory and partly from googling […]

Gasoline Pricing during my lifetime

A bit of Kevin Drum: “Raw data: Gasoline during my lifetime,” jabberwocking.com, Kevin Drum. I had just been discharged from Marine Corp active duty in 71, married, and bought a boxy Datson 510 to get around in the Chicago suburbs. Finished up at one college in 72 and started finishing my BA at another college […]

Women’s out-of-pocket healthcare costs are higher than for men

Out-of-pocket healthcare costs are $15 billion higher for US women than men, qz.com, Clarisa Diaz Healthcare financial burden on women persists outside of maternity related care. That is the crux of the issue. Women pay more for healthcare. Consulting firm Deloitte: The analysis of the resulting costs after the current benefit coverage is applied, indicates […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for September 25 – 29

Weekly Indicators for September 25 – 29 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Interest rates continued to head higher, with mortgage rates briefly going over 7.5%. With the long leading indicators having worsened, With the decline in commodity (including gas) prices over, I am looking for […]

Hardly Worth the Wait – OIG report on Sorting & Delivery Centers

It appears Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is well on his way to implementing his modernization vision of the future US Post Office. The is not going to be pretty. If even half of the claims made by Steve Hutchins and Mark Jamison are true, the nation will suffer a loss which will be impossible to […]

Drones and Trenches

For less than $1 thousand a pop, Ukrainians are taking out Russian tanks costing $3 million. For less than $300 thousand a pop, they are taking out Russian warships costing $ billions. Ukraine is doing these things with homemade cardboard drones, store-bought drones, and their roll-your-own mostly-submerged drones. Ukraine’s TLK-150 and TLK-400 submersible drones with […]

Consumer spending holds up well in August, despite ending of disinflation

Consumer spending holds up well in August, despite ending of disinflation  – by New Deal democrat  As I have repeated for the past several months, in the current economy the personal spending and income report is just as important as the jobs report. That’s because, despite the downturn in manufacturing production and many parts […]