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

Texas Seniors Suddenly Lose Medicare Benefits

Suzanne Blake Newsweek Nothing unique here. Just another Texas screwup while trying to eliminate people from state and federal programs. The problem being they mistakenly injure the innocents. No problem though, it happens in other states or so Texans claim. Hundreds of Texas seniors lost their Medicare benefits after Texas Health and Human Services made an error in the […]

Personal Income and Personal Saving Make More than 40% of Households’ Property Income…Invisible. Think Total Return.

by Steve Roth Wealth Economics Matthew Klein and Joey Politano have been singularly responsible in their discussions of “excess saving” in the covid era — not least by always putting that term in “so-called” quotes. It’s saving in excess of what would have happened if pre-covid linear trends had continued (with the trend based on some chosen range of preceding quarters or years). […]

Real retail sales rebound, forecast a continued “soft landing” for jobs growth

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog As per usual, real retail sales is one of my favorite indicators, because it gives so much information about the consumer, and since consumption leads employment, it helps forecast the trend in the latter as well. And the news this morning was good, as nominally retail sales […]

Trump’s “Truth” Social meme stock plummets

I’m an investor, not a gambler, so I don’t own cryptocurrency, NFTs or shares in “Truth” Social. So the news that investors in DJT are being taken to the cleaners doesn’t faze me. “Shares of Trump Media plunged more than 15% on Monday after the company filed to issue millions of additional shares of stock. […]

Tesla and the law of gravity

OK, Tesla isn’t Bitcoin and it isn’t Trump’s Pravda Social, but: “Tesla announced to Gigafactory Texas employees that it will shorten Cybertruck production shift amid rumors that it is preparing a round of layoffs. “We received several reports today from Tesla employees hearing rumors of an important round of layoffs happening this week at the […]

George Stephanopoulos asks New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu 

George Stephanopoulos asked New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu  by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American This Week, host George Stephanopoulos, “Just to sum up,” “You support [Trump] for president even if he’s convicted in [the] classified documents [case]. You support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You […]

59% of People Retaining Medicaid Coverage Were Renewed Through Ex Parte Processes 

Medicaid Renewals Of the people retaining Medicaid Coverage as of April 11, 2024 . . . Fifty-nine percent were renewed on an ex parte basis while 41% were renewed through a renewal form, though rates varied by state. Federal rules require states to first try to complete administrative (or “ex parte”) renewals by verifying ongoing eligibility […]

Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker

by KFF Pulled together data from KFF to get an idea of what is happening with US healthcare. Big issue is people do not know. Another issue is state’s resistance to enrolling people. Hope this helps . . . Recent data on monthly Medicaid disenrollments, renewals, overall enrollment and other key indicators. Figure 1 above […]

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses Congress . . .

Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. […]