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

Social Security and Medicare Changes in 2025

Social Security adjustments are coming up starting January 2025. As if typical the increase in payment did not keep up with inflation last year. If you have not been keeping track of forth coming Social Security changes in 2025, here they are: Starting in 2025, Medicare Part B premiums will increase from $174.70 per month […]

Two-Thirds of the Growth in High Intensity Hospital Stays Not Explained by Changes in Patient Demographics or Pre-Existing Comorbidities

This is something Angry Bear has been following for a few years. A person may go to the doctor for one issue and the office wants to expand the visit to other supposed issues. An example being having a comprehensive blood test two months previous and their wanting to repeat the same blood test. The […]

A Measure of Poverty in the United States

We often talk about poverty and people living in poverty as measured by the government, Then, we set policy with regards to them. We never quite realize the impact of the programs on the people on the receiving end. A brief recital of facts and figures in charts. I also do not believe we get […]

The death of free trade?

Robert Kutner has a paywalled article in The New York Review of Books about the history of free trade and the efforts since Trump’s first term to impose tariffs, particularly on China, beginning with the first Trump Administration. “Free trade ideology once aligned with America’s economic and security interests. After World War II, open markets […]

Believing Donald Trump Supports Reproductive Rights

Elon Musk Was Behind Effort To Gaslight Americans Into Believing Donald Trump Supports Reproductive Rights, Above the Law In the waning days of the 2024 presidential election, a curious political action committee, named after the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ran ads in support of Donald Trump. It, bizarrely, claimed RBG and Trump were […]

Fear of Losing Medicaid and the ACA Healthcare When Trump Takes Office

What state government were to do for their citizens they began doing in 2010 with the expansion of healthcare in the form of Medicaid. The 2010 Affordable Care Act encouraged states to expand Medicaid programs to cover more low-income Americans who did not get health insurance through their jobs. Forty states and the District of […]

New Deal Democrats Weekly Indicators December 2-6

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. This week whipsawed the data that was heavily influenced by Thanksgiving week.  The tone of the short leading and coincident data remains positive. The negativity of much of the long leading data is becoming more problematic. As usual, clicking over and reading […]

Monthly Rebound Masks Deeper Declining Trends

November jobs report: the expected monthly rebound masks deeper declining trends  – by New Deal democrat To understand this month’s jobs report, let’s start with last month’s, where I wrote that “there were some signs of real weakness in this report that do not appear to be hurricane-related. But Hurricane Milton, as well as the […]

The Day Of . . .

I forgot, today is December 7th, The day in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise and unexpected attack. As many other men did, my dad served in the military onboard a destroyer escort. I can only imagine what he and others went through even though I am ex-military myself. Prof. Heather’s message […]

Wealth –  Money – Worth

When an economy produces goods and services above and beyond the requisite, i.e., produces an abundance, it creates wealth.  Ten-eleven thousand years ago, this wealth was likely food stored for winter, that rainy day, that dry season, … .  Today, for some, this abundance/wealth might include assets such as fine houses, lifestyle, money, …; and […]