What News was in My In-Box

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Kind of a mixed bag of what news was showing up in My In-Box. It was evenly spread amongst various topics. Ford building a battery plant just like everyone else is planning. Wall Street buying up residential homes. That purchasing of houses will come to no-good for the average citizen. ACA Preventive is under threat by a looney federal judge in Texas and SCOTUS has to decide. Non-Opioid pain treatment sounds like a good idea. If you do not like the idea, blame the Sacklers and Purdue. They lit the fuse with their lies. Cruz is “lying” about his bill. It was not a clean bill. “Cruz’s bills would bar schools supposedly teaching critical race theory or advocating for abortion from the funds.” More on that issue later.

Also, an excellent recital by Professor Heather’s Letters from an American on Arizona blocking most abortions. The rest you can read for yourself. This is enough of a teaser news showing up in My In-Box. .

Business

“Why Wall Street is snapping up household houses,” (newsncr.com), Damini Sharma. Blackstone went forward buying up housing regardless of Mr Zell’s recommendation. A decade on from the primary buy in Phoenix, Arizona—an outlay price $100,000—the experiment has morphed into an institutional-grade asset class. Last year’s curiosity within the housing sector reached fever pitch.

“The Fed Should Wait and See,” Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org), Joseph E. Stiglitz & Dean Baker. With recent data showing that both inflation and inflation expectations have eased, it would be irresponsible for the US Federal Reserve to create much higher unemployment. Amid so much uncertainty, it should instead pause interest-rate hikes until a more reliable assessment of macroeconomic conditions is possible.

“Ford Breaks Ground on BlueOval City, Largest Complex in Company History,” DBusiness Magazine, R.J. King. “We are building the future right here in west Tennessee,” says Eric Grubb, Ford’s director of new footprint construction. “This facility is the blueprint for Ford’s future manufacturing facilities and will enable Ford to help lead America’s shift to electric vehicles.”

“Will Home Prices Fall? Higher Mortgage Rates Are Freezing Out US Buyers,” fa-mag.com, John Gittelsohn and Prashant Gopal, The US housing market has gone from fear of missing out to just plain fear. Prices are falling from peak levels, with expensive West Coast markets recording the steepest declines. Bidding wars are fading and sellers are having to ratchet down expectations. It should all add up to an opportunity for would-be home buyers to gain the upper hand after a years-long market frenzy. Home buyers are facing the worst affordability in almost four decades.

Healthcare

“Why COVID Is Still Worse Than Flu,” The Atlantic, Sarah Zhang. When President Joe Biden declared this week, “The pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks,” the country was still recording more than 400 COVID deaths a day—more than triple the average number from flu.

“It’s Time For Employers To Bring Health Care Decisions In-House,” Health Affairs, Christopher M. Whaley, Gloria Sachdev, Marilyn Bartlett, Ge Bai. Why have employer costs risen so much? The RAND Corporation’s recent hospital price transparency study finds that employer plans pay more than twice what Medicare pays for the exact same services at the exact same hospitals.

“It’s High Time for Broader Access to Non-Opioid Pain Medication.” | MedPage Today, Chris Fox, Overdose deaths hit an all-time high in the U.S., over 107,000 in a single year. The crisis is driven predominantly by opioid-related overdose deaths. Since 1999, the number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 1 million. It is clear the problem shows no signs of abating.

“Coffee Science: A Clinician’s Guide to a Beloved Bean | Complementary and Alternative Medicine | Gaples Institute Nutrition and Lifestyle Education.” AMA Ed Hub (ama-assn.org), With consumption of up to four cups of coffee, comparing to non-drinkers, there’s a 29% reduced risk of all-cause mortality over a seven-year period. A 15% reduction in all cardiovascular disease.

“Will The US Supreme Court Strike Down The ACA’s Preventive Services Coverage Requirement?,” Health Affairs, Richard Hughes IV, Nija Chappel, William Walters, Its preventive services coverage requirement, Section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act (2713 or Section 2713). Section 2713, one of the law’s most substantive coverage guarantees, has strengthened the content of health insurance coverage to ensure that 167 million Americans have access to vaccines and cancer screenings, and other recommended preventive services, without out-of-pocket costs.

“Congress Could Consider Medicaid and CHIP Drug Pricing Provisions,” Center For Children and Families, (georgetown.edu), Edwin Park. As Congress looks ahead to a “lame duck” session after this year’s midterm elections, it could consider two modest but sound Medicaid and CHIP drug pricing provisions that were previously passed by the House. They would reduce prescription drug costs for both the federal government and the states and increase CHIP beneficiaries’ access to needed prescription drugs.

Literature and Art

“How to Be Obscene,” by Upton Sinclair, The New Yorker, I have made a discovery almost priceless to authors. If I were a selfish author, I would keep it to myself and live on it the rest of my life. Being an altruist, I pass it on for my colleagues to make use of.

“The Photographic Search for True West,” The New Yorker, Sarah Boxer, “the Denver Art Museum now has an exhibition of O’Keeffe’s photos, which makes a great counterweight to Adams’s photos of the West. The two shows couldn’t be more different. The Adams retrospective covers a huge amount of territory, running from just west of the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean. Whereas the O’Keeffe show zooms in on her corner of New Mexico. 

Politics, Corruption, etc.

“Have Voters Had Enough of Trump’s Trickle-Down Idiocy?” – The Atlantic, Mark Leibovich. In most states, you can’t pass yourself off as an election-denying January 6 truther and still be taken seriously by a majority of voters.

“Cruz Booed Over Plan to Put More Police in Schools to Combat Shootings.” (businessinsider.com), Katie Balevic, “Two weeks ago, I stood on the Senate floor and tried to pass legislation I’ve introduced that would double the number of police officers in school,” Cruz said to a crowd of boos.. AB: Yes, Cruz did try to pass this except no school would receive funding if they had teaching on CRT or abortion. Cruz is lying.

“The War-Zone Mentality — Mental Health Effects of Gun Violence in U.S. Children and Adolescents,” NEJM, James Garbarino. Consideration of gun violence’s impact on the mental health of young people highlights two issues among the many in U.S. society. Traumatic responses in children directly exposed to gun violence increases and also the contamination of the consciousness of young people, particularly those with serious mental health problems.

“Riggleman: White House switchboard called a Capitol rioter on January 6,”CBS; 60 minutes Overtime, Keith Zubrow, Former senior technical adviser for the January 6 Committee, Denver Riggleman, said the White House switchboard connected a phone call to a Capitol rioter on January 6, 2022.

“A New Era for Worker Power. Labor Wins during the Pandemic, and the Policies We Need to Sustain the Momentum,” Roosevelt Institute, Alí Bustamante. Labor-management bargaining helped sustain employment levels throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. A hot labor market driven by full employment policies led to real wage growth for workers at the bottom half of the income distribution. The reluctance of employers to renegotiate the terms of compensation in existing collective bargaining agreements caused real wages for union workers to decline.

Global

“Putin’s Escalation in Ukraine Is a Losing Strategy,” The New Yorker, Joshua Yaffa. Putin’s televised address contained three central messages. 1. The Kremlin plans to carry out referendums in its occupied Ukrainian territories in the south and east. So as to pave the way for their immediate annexation. 2. Those lands will then be considered within Russia’s national borders. This means that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons to defend them. 3. A “partial mobilization,” that is, a military draft, has been ordered to prop up the Russian war. 

“The Return of Fascism in Italy,” The Atlantic, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Meloni would also represent continuity with Italy’s darkest episode: the interwar dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. As Clinton would surely concede, this is not such a good thing.

Consumerism

“The Affordable Lectric XP Lite ‘E-Thing’ Changed My Thinking,” (treehugger.com), Lloyd Alter, I was excited to be offered a test drive on a Lectric e-bike. I asked for the least expensive model and they sent me an XP Lite, which retails on their website for $799. It’s in a more accessible price range. For reference, it’s less than a quarter of what my Gazelle Medeo retails for.

“Protect Your Pet Before Emergency,” HomeAgain, HomeAgain Pet Recovery. Whenever, there is a hurricane, tornado, forest fire, earthquake or other natural disaster, the last thing you want to do is search for a pet‐friendly place to take shelter or gather your pet’s necessary items. 

“The Fed has hiked interest rates again. Here’s how it may affect the stock and housing markets,”(consumeraffairs.com), Mark Huffman. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage goes up and down with the yield on the Treasury Department’s 10-year bond. The Fed’s policy of trying to slow the economy has reduced the number of buyers of U.S. bonds. Fewer buyers mean the government has to pay a higher interest rate to remain competitive. Early in the pandemic, the yield on the 10-year bond was below 1%, producing record-low mortgage rates. The yield is now about 3.5% and may rise further as the Fed continues its efforts to slow the economy.

Best of the Substacks

“September 24, 2022,” Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com). In Arizona, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson has restored a law. A law put into effect by Arizona’s Territorial legislature in 1864 and then reworked in 1901. The law has been widely interpreted as a ban on all abortions except to save a woman’s life.

“Don’t,” Weldon Berger, Bad Crow Review (substack.com). Rubin has become one of the most vitriolic critics of the Tangerine Tyrant, and her enabling press along with her. She’s still horrid on policy, on the rare occasion when she gets to it. For years now, she’s been pounding on Trump like he was a stringy piece of beef. Today she came as close as a leaner to naming names among the newsies.

“Piercing The Corporate Climate Veil.” (levernews.com), Rishika Pardikar. The oil and gas company (Shell) is appealing the decision, claiming the emissions target is “not feasible or even reasonable.” Shell argues consumers who buy its products are actually the ones responsible for the climate disaster.

Links

“What News was in My In-Box,” September 21, 2022, Angry Bear (angrybearblog.com)

“What News was in My In-Box,” September 14, 2022, Angry Bear (angrybearblog.com)

Other Links: Infidel753: “Link round-up for 25 September 2022“

Other Links: Homeless on the High Desert, “First Day … ,” Ten Bears