So many flaws, so many mistakes made; does America even deserve to exist? Does any country that would elect such a person president? Now twelve score and eight, this nation so boldly brought forth on this continent has, in the main, gotten better and better; until it didn’t. That nation so many have loved so […]
Medicare Advantage Plans are notorious for denying healthcare treatments to plan subscribers. CMS is intervening by making a much-needed change to how Medicare Advantage plans decides on treatments needed by plan subscribers. Just a couple of pointers showing how MA has been serving it customers . . . the public. In the existing MA bidding […]
– by New Deal democrat Let me finish catching up this week with a quick look at personal income and spending, which were reported on Wednesday. The “big” takeaway I’ve seen elsewhere is that inflation picked up, and maybe will complicate the Fed’s task. But I don’t see where it’s such a big deal. The […]
Food Prices Rose 28% In 5 Years. Here’s Why, – by Taryn Phaneuf NerdWallet No single factor can explain why food is so much more expensive now than before the pandemic. Food prices — which are up 28% since 2019 — remain high because of the combined impact of rising operating costs, supply-chain disruptions and […]
There are a huge number of anomalies and biases which can be understood as confusing the claims that the probability of p conditional on q is high if the conditional probability of q conditional on p is high. One is diagnostic expectations – the conditional probability that a person has red hair if the person […]
In 1998, I traveled to Moscow for the first time to teach in a summer course at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The week before, we were on vacation in Colorado and I heard on the radio “Today, the ruble lost 100% of its value.” That meant that the ruble was worthless, which seemed unlikely. […]
Since Trump and Republicans are interested in cutting spending. I was interested in seeing what Musk and his side kick Ramaswamy might be looking at to reduce. What you are looking at is a Pie Chart showing all items in the budget. The breakout of the Payroll Tax Chart from the Pie Chart (further down) […]
Social Security is sustainable. I do not know how many times Dale, Arne, and Bruce have had to explain this. And no, the US has not been on the Gold Standard for domestic transactions since 1933. In 1971, the US left the Gold Standard for International transactions under President Nixon. The U.S. switched to a […]
– by New Deal democrat I suspect that both hurricanes as well as mortgage rates somewhat distorted all of the housing reports for October. Last week with existing home sales I noted that “While sales remained in range, price appreciation increased and the pace of inventory accumulation decreased.“ There was something of a mirror image […]
An explanation of over-reaction to new data starts with a principal agent model. The idea is that the forecasts are made by agents who are trying to impress people who pay for the forecasts. Another, and more important, case is that of professional money managers who are investing other people’s money and trying to convince […]