CBO and others say differently . . . The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the OBBBA increases the budget deficit by $2.8 trillion by 2034 and causes 10.9 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage. A further CBO analysis estimated the highest 10% of earners would see incomes rise by 2.7% by 2034 mainly due to tax cuts. The lowest […]

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Weekly Indicator for August 10 – 14 is up at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat An Inflationary Expansion, Beware the Bearish Steepening of Bond Yields Seeking Alpha. It is surprising how large a majority of the high frequency data is positive, despite all of the chaos that has been thrown at the economy. Still, […]

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Governments tax labor at much higher rates than capital for what used to be good reasons: labor is less mobile, making such taxes easier to collect, and capital investments tend to boost human productivity and wages, meaning that taxes on labor indirectly capture the upside from capital spending. But if machines start to replace humans […]

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I have not run into an issue (as described below) where I have had to wait on an approval. Recently? Twice I have been hospitalized at a non-VA hospital. They took me right in. Maybe it was because I was using my VA benefits. They have become more friendly since I filed due to exposure […]

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When my dad was a Naval officer in the 1950s, he was part of the team that designed and built the USS Saratoga, an aircraft carrier. I remember him explaining to me in excited detail about the arresting gear, the device that stopped a landing jet. He spent most of his career as a chemical […]

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July retail sales lay an egg; a hangover after a spring Budget Bust-out Bill binge?”  – by New Deal democrat Let me start out this post with two comments: (1) real retail sales is one of my favorite economic indicators, because it tells us so much about consumer spending, which is about 70% of the […]

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Businesses fail all the time in America. The owners and investors pay the price (yes, the employees too). But if the businesses are large banks that gamble with other peoples’ money, they become too big to fail and instead are bailed out by the government, a form of financial socialized medicine. “. . . the […]

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But, but, but Biden was too old. Not Tr__p! Trump is a solipsist. The only point of reference is himself, so he makes no attempt even at faking interest in other people, since he can not really see them from his self-centered position. “Trump isn’t a narcissist – he’s a solipsist. And it means a […]

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When a columnist writes that Trump has reached a new low, the columnist is doing something that looks like moral reporting and is not. The columnist is administering the fiction that the object has an interior. The fiction says: somewhere, in there, is a person who could have chosen otherwise, and today he did not, […]

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“Producer prices indicate continued inflationary expansion, but how long can it last?”  – by New Deal democrat I usually do not pay much attention to producer vs. consumer prices. Partly that is because in the past few decades, the PPI has tended to be coincident with the CPI rather than leading it, and partly because […]

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There’s an article in the latest New Yorker on Chief Justice Roberts. In it, he’s quoted as saying: “Only the President (along with the Vice President) is elected by the entire Nation.” What an embarrassing and easily falsifiable lie. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the US Constitution and the first GW Bush and Trump […]

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Just so you know, the issue is not dead. Tr__p is calling in every resource he can to limit or block mail voting.. 12 states responded in a SCOTUS brief in support Trump’s Executive, order. Another 23 states and the District of Columbia responded asking SCOTUS to deny the other 12 states and Tr__p’s EO […]

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This report is about one week old. I do not believe much has changed since the SPR is within its strategic minimum. However, Tr__p still bumbling around with Iran which has some if not complete control of the strait of Hormuz. The issue may have changed by now or Trump may have blundered again and […]

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Sound economic projections are critical in assessing investment and public policy. I try not to let the fact that I’m philosophically valanced towards Medicare for all blind me to the need for rigorous study of its likely economic impact. “Previous research has shown that shifting the United States to a Medicare for All system could […]

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Jobless claims continue to forecast a very positive economy in the near term  – by New Deal democrat Let’s take our regular weekly look at one of the most positive recent signs for the economy, “initial and continuing jobless claims.” And they continued to be very positive. Initial claims rose 9,000 for the week to a […]

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Big personnel news out of the White House yesterday: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the administration. Leavitt, who had her second child in May and returned from maternity leave last month, wrote in a post that “I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and […]

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 July consumer inflation: the second gift horse in a row, with gas prices down again and shelter subdued – by New Deal democrat As I wrote yesterday, July’s CPI was likely to be subdued because on average the price of gas went down further in July. And it was, rising only 0.1% for the month and […]

The post AB: There are few places where a reader can get a down-to-earth explanation on Consumer Inflation, Gas prices, and Shelter in one commentary, in a simple explanation format, and short. It is lengthy at times but shorter than others. appeared first on Angry Bear.

Not sure if this is anything special. Just an update by Bill Moyer’s take on railroads. If I get someone of Bill Moyer’s stature mentioning me by my name, I am going to pay attention. Bill writes about railroads these days. And he should. Railroads are one form of transportation in the United States which […]

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The first time I recall using a map was in boy scouts. Travel in unfamiliar places on foot, bike or car required maps for me for decades. The first time I saw GPS in action was when my brother and I were on Ride the Rockies. We were invited to dinner by a friend in […]

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This is one of the issues, I am not an expert on. I know the numbers. If I track them, I can arrive to a conclusion. It is people like New Deal democrat and Dean Baker who can explain them to the degree you may wish to know. They give the reasons why and how […]

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