– by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. As 2025 ended, all of the important trends seemed to intensify. The US$ is down 10% YoY by one measure, commodities are higher by the same or more, oil prices continued to fade, and the recent waning in the YoY growth of withholding […]
Typically, it does take more than one clinical study to insure . . . A lower number of Clinical Studies: WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration plans to begin requiring one clinical study, instead of the standard two, for medical products before consideration for approval, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced late in 2025. While historically the […]
– by New Deal democrat There is no new noteworthy data today; and the ISM manufacturing index, normally released on the first workday of each month, won’t be released until Monday, so today is an ideal time to check in on the state of the economy in general, and of housing in particular, at the […]
[Note: Yesterday was a travel day, and I didn’t get around to posting the regional Fed services survey averages for December. I’ll try to get to that later today.] The last weekly jobless report continues the trend of an improved picture – as in, very few people are getting laid off – that has typified […]
This short piece suggests how healthcare could be paid for in the US. A necessary first step to restore faith in American democracy and the public sector. or how to close the nation’s current fiscal gap. Right now the current Republican Administration led by President Tru_p solution is to cut healthcare via Medcaid to much […]
– by New Deal democrat Although the federal government shutdown has been over for a month and a half, most of the data that has been released has lagged badly, especially including data on sales, spending, and business orders. That means that the most current measures of these are the ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing reports, due […]
Artificial intelligence is already taking jobs from human workers, but according to renowned computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, the real disruption may only be getting started. In a weekend interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Hinton predicted that AI systems will make significant leaps in 2026, gaining capabilities that could allow them to replace an even […]
– by New Deal democrat My ”Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. The year ended with a magnification of several trends that have been a theme all year: the US $ is down almost 10%, largely responsible for a nearly 15% rise in commodity prices, while consumer spending ended with a bang as well. “Commerce […]
In which Bill Cassidy aims to do to health coverage what he did to public health, Xpostfactoid, Andrew Sprung I never set up to be a prophet of healthcare policy, or anything else. But when Senator Bill Cassidy floated a plan in early November to extend and modify the enhanced ACA marketplace subsidies that are […]
– by New Deal democrat In Q3, personal spending rose 1.6%, or 6.4% annualized, while personal incomes only rose 0.8%, or 3.3% annualized. A little more precisely, personal spending rose 0.75% more than personal incomes. Just how much more did spending rise than the income to fuel it compared on a historical basis? In the past […]