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

MA Plans are Scamming Billions from Medicare

“Major Insurers Are Scamming Billions from Medicare, Whistle-Blowers Say” – PNHP, John Tozzi, Bloomberg, April 12, 2022 Teresa Ross had been raising objections at work for months when her bosses brought in a psychologist hoping to make her question her own sanity. A longtime manager at a Seattle health plan called Group Health Cooperative, Ross had opposed […]

Continued good news for consumers on gas prices

Continued good news for consumers on gas prices There’ll be lots of economic news starting tomorrow, but for today let’s pause and take a look at the energy situation. Here’s a look at oil prices in the past year up through yesterday from CNBC: And here’s a look over the same time period from Gas […]

irs.gov

The republicans are indignant as hell that the Inflation Reduction Act, née Climate and Healthcare Bill, would increase funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Since Reagan, republicans had been defunding it for them that brought them; them being the very rich who don’t like paying taxes. After the 2010 cuts, it had gotten to […]

MA Pricing Increases 8.5%, Traditional Medicare remains the Same so far

I believe we should fund traditional Medicare more, if the funds are going there (the funds are not going there). If you want something else, you are on your own. I do not want to pay the additional costs involved with MA Plans which we are doing out of Medicare funds. It is also no […]

MAGA Republicans threatening “our personal rights and economic security”

“August 27, 2022,” Heather Cox Richardson, (substack.com) In a speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden called out today’s MAGA Republicans for threatening “our personal rights and economic security…. They’re a threat to our very democracy.” When he referred to them as “semi-fascists,” he drew headlines, some of them disapproving. A spokesperson for the Republican National […]

Marking Ezra Klein’s Beliefs to Market

A tweet sent me to this column Ezra Klein wrote long, long ago in a city far away. In the heady day of April 8 2021, Klein discussed Joseph Biden’s radicalism and contrasted it with Barack Obama’s caution. I remember. Biden had just signed the American Rescue plan and was proposing what would be called […]

Student Loans

America is the land of equal opportunity. Well, yeah, truth be, your odds are little bit better if your parents can afford to send you to a good university. Other that, it’s even stephen. What if those who weren’t born to means could borrow the money? That would almost be as good, no.? Before 1965, […]

Weekly Indicators for August 22 – 26 at Seeking Alpha

Weekly Indicators for August 22 – 26 at Seeking Alpha  My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. In the past couple of weeks, the decline in gas prices has slowed considerably. Once they stabilize, the underlying economic fundamentals should reassert themselves. In the meantime, there are cross currents of interest rates and manufacturing orders, […]