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

Diversity in healthcare delivery

Years ago, we had an MD/PhD student in our program who had Eilers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes joint laxity and frequent painful joint dislocations. After over a decade of being misdiagnosed, her correct diagnosis was made by a physical therapist, not a physician. I noted in a previous post that I’ve been […]

Heathcare Insurance Companies Abandoning Medicare Advantage

There are changes coming to the Medicare market place and Medicare Advantage. “Market exits by Humana, Aetna, and UnitedHealthcare will collectively affect nearly 70% of those 1.8 million individuals.” The remainder of the 1.8 million will be looking at new plans with the same insurance provider. The market consisting of people exiting their old Medicare […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for November 11 – 15

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. More the recent ‘same’ this week: short term and coincident indicators are a little noisy, but continue to say the economic OK. Meanwhile the longer leading indicators are mixed and weighing on future growth. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring […]

Review of the Tax Code and Who Benefited the Most from the Breaks in It

A review of the tax break impacts from 1981 till 2020 and who benefited the most from them. I found it to be interesting and detailed in what was occurring during this time period. As you read it and review the graphs, I believe you will find the majority of the tax breaks were targeting […]

Access to medical care: right or privilege?

America is the only industrialized nation where you can go bankrupt because of medical care. The ACA helped mitigate that risk for tens of millions, but the Trump Administration is promising to abolish the ACA. For those with some form of health insurance (private insurance, the ACA, Medicare), there’s still the challenge of (a) finding […]

Production turns more negative

– by New Deal democrat Industrial and manufacturing production slid further in October, by -0.3% and -0.5% respectively. They are also down respectively -1.2% and -1.8% from their late 2022 highs: It’s a good thing I suppose that manufacturing is no longer such an important part of the American economy, because as the below graph of […]

Lawler: Early Read on Existing Home Sales in October

by Bill McBride Calculated Risk From housing economist Tom Lawler: Based on publicly-available local realtor/MLS reports released across the country through today . . . I project that existing home sales as estimated by the National Association of Realtors ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.97 million in October, up 3.4% from September’s […]

Real retail sales jump nicely, but we’re not out of the woods on consumption just yet

 – by New Deal democrat Let me start with my usual reminder that real retail sales is one of my favorite economic indicators, because it tells us so much about the state of the consumer, and since consumption leads employment, it is a short leading indicator for that as well. In October retail sales rose 0.4% […]

Seafood says global warming is not a hoax

Trump and his minions may not believe in global warming, but people whose livelihoods depend on understanding climate change—bankers, insurance companies and the military—know it’s real. So do non-humans whose livelihoods are compromised by climate change: “Native fish populations will likely continue their decline off of Massachusetts’ coast, while species from further south will move […]