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

GM Backing Away from EV – Electric Vehicles

GM backs away a bit from it Electric Vehicle (EV) strategy. Manufacturing capacity was there. Sales was not there yet. If anything, this foray into EV manufacture will give them a chance to regroup. It takes time to recast their manufacturing capabilities for each year’s model change and what manufacturing facility will produce it. Usually, […]

Home ec

The high school my wife and I attended in East Tennessee back in the early 70s offered both home ec and shop. She took home ec, but I didn’t take shop. Shop was power tools and home ec was domestic skills like cooking and sewing. The Boston Globe just published an article that reminded me […]

Open Enrollment for Medicare Traditional or Advantage. Why you should Pick Traditional

I broke this comment by Deb Schultz (comments section “Traditional Medicare Open Enrollment is Now”) into three different segments to emphasize each part. Deb and I talked once before. I agree with her comments. It is worth reading so you understand the issues. Please read. ~~~~~~~ “Is this open season for Traditional Medicare available only […]

Repeat home sales show continued deflation (Case Shiller) vs. stabilization (FHFA) (update with current graphs)

 – by New Deal democrat Despite the government shutdown, the FHFA did publish its repeat home sales index this morning. And since the S&P Case Shiller index is from a private entity, that was published as well. Between those two and the NAR’s existing home sales report, we still have pretty good visibility into that 90% […]

“A Naked Demonstration of the Administration’s Hypocrisy and Incompetence”

Maybe this fits and maybe it does not. Every time I read about another trumpism, my mind goes back to what Welch said to McCarthy. “”Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, “Let us not assassinate this […]

Tabulated state initial and continuing claims continue neutral trend indicating weak expansion

 – by New Deal democrat As I have done since the beginning of the government shutdown, the number of initial and continuing claims can be calculated notwithstanding, because it is based on reporting by the States, plus DC, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Then by applying the same adjustment as was used for the […]

What Does Medicaid Spend on Undocumented Immigrants?

Information like this is hard to come across. It does answer the issues of the impact of undocumented citizens and their impact upon healthcare in the United States. I did search for deeper detail. I am finding Medicaid information to be in withheld. This article is from MedPage. If you do not have access to […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for October 20 – 24

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. This is a good time for a reminder that very little of the high frequency data has been affected by the federal government shutdown, because almost all of it comes from the Fed or regional Feds, States, and private sources. That data continues […]

September consumer inflation: re-accelerating trend more established, with shelter (!) being the only silver lining

– by New Deal democrat Wow, some actual new economic data on which to report – how refreshing! To be clear, the only reason this was reported is that it was necessary for the calculation of the annual cost of living increases to Social Security checks. Had these been frozen there would have been a “million […]