– by Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early Washington Monthly also at Z Musk and Trump’s DOGE cuts are a grave threat to veterans’ healthcare and benefits or the VA as many know it as. Earlier this month, Vietnam War veteran Paul Cox went to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in St. Louis to […]

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ISM manufacturing index returns to contraction as the front-running of tariffs has ended  – by New Deal democrat [Note: I’ll report separately on construction spending, also released this morning] Although manufacturing is of diminishing importance to the economy, (it was in deep contraction both in 2015-16 and again in 2022 without any recession), the ISM manufacturing […]

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“Newsmax raised $75 million in its IPO Friday, with shares priced at $10. Newsmax’s rapid ascent in its first two days of trading pushed the company’s market cap to $16.7 billion. Shares traded around $190 early Tuesday.” Sounds great, right? But scroll down a bit: “The company is facing an ongoing lawsuit from Dominion Voting […]

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Peter D. Wallace, 19 June 1961 – 26 December 2024 Prelude I have been working for many years. Not enough, by any stretch, but many. And, as with many males Of A Certain Age, my first regular job was delivering newspapers. Specifically, in my case, the Cincinnati Enquirer, a morning paper that had some appeal […]

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I recall a time when the GOP posed as the staunch defenders of America’s military, including military veterans. But Republicans have stopped saluting veterans and save their salutes for tax cuts. “The Veterans Affairs Department is planning to lay off tens of thousands of employees throughout its organization later this year, according to an internal […]

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It sure looks like this is the plan according to Americans for Tax Fairness. If one of the expiring provisions–lower individual tax rates – were instead extended, Trump could have an extra and ~ $2.7 million in his pocket over 10 years. And that is a modest estimate by the Tax Fairness Group. An extension […]

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This is a serious issue. New drugs enter the marketplace at a higher price to recoup the costs of development. Do the prices come down over a period of time? Not necessarily, there-in lies the issues. When are drugs paid off? Can’t say I have an answer yet. I am combining old data with new […]

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A follow up to Part I. Brief Intro: The international role of the dollar and how it does or doesn’t affect the U.S. balance of payments. Paul throws in some discussion on the foundational fallacies underlying Trump officials beliefs on trade. “A Balance of Payments Primer, Part II: The Dollar and All That“ – by […]

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 – by New Deal democrat The deluge of new monthly data starts tomorrow. Today there’s no significant data, so let me follow up on a point from Friday’s personal income and spending report. I never look to see what others are saying before I finish my own analysis, because I want to be as unbiased as […]

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Another change of mind and also in a direction by the US as led by the Donald. Testin other countries or a lack of concentration and direction. Kind of embarrassing as we have a leader who can not stay focused. President Donald Trump appears to have had a change of heart about the United States taking […]

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Duncan Black over at Eschaton posts: “One possibility I haven’t seen raised elsewhere is that Trump intends to announce massive tariffs lasting years, the Republicans will “book” this revenue when they do their budget bill, cut taxes on rich people accordingly, and then just erase (some of) the tariffs. “Some budget shenanigans are above my […]

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“As of March 27, 2025, a total of 483 confirmed* measles cases were reported by 20 jurisdictions: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.” Meanwhile, leaders at the CDC ordered staff this week not […]

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No words. Just numbers . . . Student Loan Justice Org. I lied . . . some words. The first, oldest and largest citizen’s group in the nation fighting for student loan justice (Alan Collinge).  We are fighting for the cancellation of all federally owned student loans by executive action, and the return of bankruptcy […]

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AB: Corporate America wanting more . . . Opponents of higher corporate taxes argue it’s not really corporations, ultimately their wealthy executives and shareholders pay the price. They claim we’re all hurt by increased corporate tax collections and are helped by lower ones through the impact on our jobs, communities, retirement savings, and the economy […]

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R.J. Sigmund had this article in his “Weekly” (ending March 29) topics about environment, energy, & related news. R,J. warns “there are big cuts to the CDC afoot with regard to (including at the state level) Covid data collection. It is possible the metrics will no longer published. Or if they do, they’d be less […]

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Trump has said trade wars are “good and easy to win.” History begs to differ. The Smoot-Hawley Act and ensuing trade wars were not good for the country and not good for President Hoover. “The 1930 Tariff Act started with the narrow aim of helping distressed farmers but then mushroomed into a wholesale rewriting of […]

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“Arctic sea ice makes new record low annual max,” National Snow and Ice Data Center  – by New Deal democrat On Sunday I occasionally post about topics of interest unrelated to economics. So today, let’s take note of a significant milestone in global warming. Specifically, the arctic has just had its lowest peak ever for sea ice […]

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– by Paul Krugman And why you shouldn’t panic over trade deficits AB: I offer no opinion of Krugman’s thoughts here. Although Paul does state; having a president obsessing with trade imbalances does create issues for the US and the population. To balance out Trump’s obsession, the administration has economists willing to provide arguments to […]

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Residency is a mandatory step to achieving medical licensure in the US. Most residency programs are managed by hospitals, although my medical school is one of the ca. 10% that manages its own residency programs. The federal government, primarily through Medicare and Medicaid, is the largest source of funding for Graduate Medical Education (GME), which […]

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Trump and Vance insist that Denmark and Greenlanders must cede control of Greenland to the United States. Trump has made not-so-veiled threats to seize Greenland by force. A US invasion and military occupation of Greenland would ostensibly be justified on national security grounds, to protect the region from Russia. A similar justification has been voiced […]

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