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

Some Healthcare Detail on costs, smoke, and morphine.

Three healthcare issues that are relevant to today. Things we should be talking about. If you remember Merrill Gooz had a chart up showing healthcare costs have been around 17%. For more than a decade, CMS and CBO consistently overestimated the growth in health care spending, which undermines efforts to spend more on health-related social […]

Industrial and manufacturing production continue to falter

Industrial and manufacturing production continue to falter  – by New Deal democrat I frequently call industrial production the King of Coincident Indicators, because so often the turning point in this metric has been at the peaks and troughs of the economy as a whole. That has not been the case since last September, when this […]

June retail sales continue to falter, with the important exception of motor vehicles

June retail sales continue to falter, with the important exception of motor vehicles  – by New Deal democrat As usual, retail sales is one of my favorite indicators, because it tells us so much about the 70% of the US economy that is consumption, as well as being a short leading indicator for employment. It […]

With Social Security on Brink of Collapse, Dramatic Changes Coming

Dear Reader Dale Coberly: Bill has asked me to comment on an article appearing on the internet at wealthynickel.com under the title With Social Security on Brink of Collapse, Dramatic Changes Coming – Some With ‘Bipartisan Support’ written by Andrew Herrig, who calls himself a finance expert and says his expert financial advice has been […]

Profit Motive Isn’t Working in Healthcare

Or with contract doctors . . . ER Dr. Ming Lin is calling attention to the increasing influence of large corporations in the practice of medicine and its detrimental effects on physicians and healthcare workers. What we have is one employee facing down a healthcare corporation. The chances of an employee winning are minimal unless […]

How to Save Social Security . . . Investors Version

I am seeing numerous articles on Social Security as of late. How to save it from running a deficit. Is this really, what this is about? Even though, the nation has almost always run a deficit except during Clinton(?). There are different ways in which Social Security can be funded. As one finance expert proclaimed, […]

US: Nonprofit Hospitals Chase Low-Income Patients on Debts

This is more of an introduction to the Human Right Watch Org and the review of healthcare in the United States. The topic is no surprise as we have touched upon this in earlier commentaries. In this short piece they are finding private nonprofit hospitals are not so nonprofit. Indeed, they are skimping on healthcare […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for July 10 – 14

Weekly Indicators for July 10 – 14 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Several indicators that had been stubbornly positive throughout the decline in leading metrics as of this past week finally turned either neutral or negative. Much as the dominant punditry at the moment is […]

July 15, 2023 Letters from an American

July 15, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof Heather Cox Richardson [Warning: the 13th paragraph of this piece, beginning “They did,” graphically describes racial violence.] July 16 marks the 160th anniversary of the most destructive riot in U.S. history. On July 13, 1863, certain Democrats in New York City rose up against the Lincoln administration. […]