Anterevolution, France was pre-industrial, feudal, and broke.  Broke because its wealth (wealth that had been derived from the labor of serfs at home and slaves in her colonies, and the exploitation of indigenous peoples) had been wasted by its government and aristocracy on wars and extravagance.  By 1789, wars and lifestyle had bled the country […]

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The nation went through a period of high gasoline prices, even though the government released oil from the reserves. Now it appears the US has a glut of oil and may (and always has) lack refinery capacity. Prices appear to have stabilized in many places at about $3.50 per gallon (I may be paying more […]

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No, the 1% aren’t the job creators—that’s the middle class and working class. Tax cuts for the 1%, of course, don’t create jobs, they just create greater wealth disparity: “The authors set out to examine all instances of major tax reductions on the rich in 18 OECD countries between 1965 and 2015 and identify the […]

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NY Fed: Mortgage Originations by Credit Score, Delinquencies Increase, Foreclosures Remain Low; Calculated Risk Newsletter The NY Fed released the Q3 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit this morning. Here are three charts from the report. The first graph shows mortgage originations by credit score (this includes both purchase and refinance). Look at the difference in credit […]

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The Government made it possible for people to choose between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage for their care at 65. An alternative was provided under the guise of commercial healthcare providing better healthcare and other services to those who qualify for Medicare at a lesser cost. There are superficial and also meaningful pluses that are […]

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 – by New Deal democrat Today’s CPI report for October generally showed stable monthly increases, but slight increases in YoY comparisons. But as usual, it was almost all about the usual culprit of shelter, as more fully parsed below; to wit:  – Headline CPI increased 0.2% for the month, the fourth month in a row […]

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We had rooftop solar on our house for eight years before we moved. Half the price was paid by Ameren, the electric utility, and we got a 30% tax rebate on the balance. Even with that steep discount, we never got back our put, even in nominal dollars. Solar panels are much cheaper now, and […]

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Robert Devereaux, MD wrote a piece on upcoding at MedPage. “The Trouble With Upcoding Extends Far Beyond Ethics.” This is a topic I have touched upon a couple of times and have experienced myself. Fix the issue I am telling you about if you can or pass me along to someone who can. “The practice […]

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Why does it take, take a seven-foot-tall former professional basketball player to deliver the bad news. What about? How the citizens of the US misinterpreted the pricing of a dozen eggs as a bellwether for the US economy. The news is the economy was not bad. We weathered a pandemic because a president and a […]

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Recent articles I have been reading suggest Medicare Advantage provides healthcare at a lesser cost than Traditional Medicare. Or maybe it would be better to qualify this as individuals claim MA plans do so? I do not know whether such takes into consideration the cost of a Supplemental Plan or not and also Part D […]

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Tuesday, November 12, 2024  – by New Deal democrat On Friday I wrote about how the Fed likely contributed, via hurting aspiring homeowners, to the outcome of the Election last week. Today I want to take a look at another issue – wages. As it happens, while I was writing this Paul Krugman put up […]

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The Trump administration is threatening to deport >10 million people. These are people who, regardless of their immigration status, are contributing to the economy and jobs by purchasing goods and service (“job creators”) and contributing to social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, if they are undocumented, they will never see benefits to the […]

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Atlantic’s Lora Kelley asks “What Do Democrats Do Now?” Or sorta like that. Trump is such a great story teller and caster of false narratives. People were looking for what they thought would be solutions to what they perceive as issues during and coming out of the pandemic. Maybe a recession would have been better […]

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Watch Months-of-Supply! by Bill McBride Calculated Risk Both inventory and sales are well below pre-pandemic levels, and I think we need to keep an eye on months-of-supply to forecast price changes. Historically nominal prices declined when months-of-supply approached 6 months – and that is unlikely any time soon – however, as expected, months-of-supply is above 2019 […]

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 – by New Deal democrat Today in the US is officially Veterans Day, in which we salute the service of all veterans. But it started – and still continues in some countries – as Remembrance Day, a somber memorial to all those who were killed in World War 1, which ended on November 11, 1918. […]

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Since we have a new president who favors Tariffs, we should start talking about how those Tariffs will impact the US Economy and Citizens. The Tax Foundation offers up a brief explanation which should be readily understandable for Angry Bear readers. If Trump is able to pull this off and get it out of Congress, […]

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I’ve seen some people post “Happy Veteran’s Day.” I’m not a veteran. Technically, my dad was, although he was a naval officer who did his service in the Canal Zone, nowhere close to combat. I never saw him happy on Veteran’s Day. I was never in the military, although I did carry a draft card […]

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This week’s Covid coverage includes the most common variants … currently circulating – by r. j. Sigmund Briefly, since the CDC’s Covid demographic metrics continue to recede, albeit slowly. Among the “early indicators” “test positivity”, or the percentage of tests for Covid that were positive, fell to 4.8% during the week ending November 2nd, down […]

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A comparison of US Fiscal Deficit prompted me to post this at Angry Bear. I believe it will be interesting to see how Trumps fiscal policies playout over the next four years. Check out The Guardian’s Economics Editor’s commentary on Trumps economic plans. The Issue: With continued high fiscal deficits likely for the foreseeable future, […]

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It does not look like students holding loan debt and looking for relief will get any relief soon. Newly minted President Donald Trump is in the revenge mode. That would include help from Republicans. Like any new administration looking for revenge, this one will attack the weakest element. It does not mean that Student Loan […]

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