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

Double Checking Foreign Students Coming to America to Study

Pretty much in the past, potential students from foreign countries were allowed admission to US universities as long as they qualified and could get a student visa, such as the F-1 visa. Potential students must first be admitted to an accredited US educational institution and obtain an I-20 form (Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for May 26 – 30

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. As I wrote about here this week, the supply chain effects of the tariffs have finally bled through to rail shipments, and probably trucking as well. Meanwhile, despite all the uncretainty, as we saw yesterday with the personal income and spending report, consumers […]

Talking Healthcare Insurance and One State

What occurred over the last few days in our household was a review of our Medicare Supplemental healthcare insurance (backs up Medicare). We have Plan N which is a good plan. We pay the Part B deductible (if needed) of Medicare which is $257 this year. The rest of Part A and B costs are […]

Decreasing the Population by Cutting Medicaid

At least people talking around the internet do not have to guess what their senator thinks about Medicaid healthcare. One was bold enough and not afraid of elections to say it out in the open. ” for Heaven Sakes” is the right answer. Giving up your healthcare and joining them in not accepting government sponsored […]

April personal income and spending: the last positive front-running report?

 – by New Deal democrat We finish the month of May with the very important personal income and spending for April, which gives us a thorough look at the consumer. In this case it is particularly complicated by the fact that “Liberation Day” tariffs and various further retaliatory increases were imposed at various times during the […]

Position Pay Incentives Can Backfire

I was nosey and decided to read this article and see if I agree with it. I look to the throughput of people and machinery to gauge if the plan and people can satisfy the requirements. Plans are not ironclad and may need to be changed to meet what people can do in a setting. […]

Tariff-palooza! Implodes – for now; but is it already too late?

 – by New Deal democrat Let me start this post by picking up where I left off yesterday. In yesterday’s post I suggested that an absolute YoY decline in intermodal rail freight might well show up in this morning’s report from the AAR. And as the below chart shows, that’s exactly what happened, with intermodal traffic […]