[unable to retrieve full-text content]There are changes coming to the Medicare market place and Medicare Advantage. “Market exits by Humana, Aetna, and UnitedHealthcare will collectively affect nearly 70% of those 1.8 million individuals.” The remainder of the 1.8 million will be looking at new plans with the same insurance provider. The market exit may be faced with new companies […]
The post Heathcare Insurance Companies Abandoning Medicare Advantage appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]“Medicare Advantage: Questionable Use of Health Risk Assessments Continues to Drive Up Payments to Plans by Billions,” Office of Inspector General | Government Oversight | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Why OIG Did This Review Medicare Advantage (MA) companies receive higher risk-adjusted payments from CMS for enrollees who are sicker, which helps to […]
The post Questionable Use of Health Risk Assessments Drives Costs appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post Subsidizing Fossil Fuels appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post NY Fed: Mortgage Originations by Credit Score, Delinquencies Increase, Foreclosures Remain Low appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post Upcoding and Ethical Behavior appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post It’s The Economy Stupid or How Voters Got It Wrong appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post Authorization Requests appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post Watch Months-of-Supply! Housing appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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 […]
The post Covid coverage includes the most common variants appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]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, […]
The post United States’ Fiscal Policy in a Global Context appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Just some economic analysis about good economic growth in the month of November 2024. Something the public seemed to have missed along the way. 2023 and 2024 appears to have had good growth even with high Fed rates. See chart below. Commerce Data Show Strong Economic Gains Due to Americans Making and Spending More November […]
The post Early Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Numerics for November 2024 appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]US Citizens awaken to their new world. Prof. Heather Cox Richardson at “Letters from an American” has a good take on what is taking place three days after the 2024 Election. She states people are beginning to realize what will take place once a Trump presidency and a mostly Republican Congress begins to implement the […]
The post The Aftermath of the 2024 Election appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]US consumers keep economy on solid ground ahead of election – By Lucia Mutikani Reuters WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew solidly in the third quarter. Consumer spending increasing at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years and inflation slowing sharply, continuing to defy forecasts of a recession, and outperforming its global peers ahead […]
The post Economy on Solid Ground “Before Election” appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Can you blame Biden for this? Not likely. Companies can price to what the market will bear and more. Creating Tariffs on overseas product will exasperate the issue and cause higher prices resulting in inflation. If you wish to cut out overseas companies? Bring the product back to the US for manufacture. That is another […]
The post Inflation During a Pandemic, Other times, and the Results appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]– by David Zetland The One-Handed Economist Ludwig van Mises published this short book in 1944, around the same time as Hayek’s Road to Serfdom was published but before Hayek’s 1945 article, “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” These other references are important because (a) Mises was Hayek’s teacher and (b) both were heavily involved in the “calculation debate” […]
The post Book Review: “Bureaucracy” appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Monthly Construction Spending, September 2024, Census Bureau Construction spending estimates are comprised of estimates based on mail-out/mail-back and interview surveys of selected construction projects and building owners, and estimates developed or compiled from other Census Bureau, federal agency, and private data sources. Total ConstructionConstruction spending during September 2024 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual […]
The post Monthly Construction Spending, September 2024 appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]by Explainer Migration Policy Institute Immigrants in the United States commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born population, not-with-standing the assertion by critics that immigration is linked to higher rates of criminal activity. This reality of reduced criminality, which holds across immigrant groups including unauthorized immigrants, has been demonstrated through research as well as […]
The post Immigrants and Crime in the United States appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The last 4 years of Border Encounters appears to be more than what the Trump Administration experienced. Is this a bad thing? Why did it occur? Has there been more crime? Encounter data includes U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) Title 8 Inadmissible, and Title 42 Expulsion. Demographics for […]
The post Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) Title 8 Inadmissible, and Title 42 Expulsions appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]There is considerable doubt about Richard Glossip’s guilt for a brutal 1997 murder in Oklahoma City, for which he has twice been sentenced to death. It also appears unquestionable that he has never gotten a fair trial.  Glossip’s case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, where his fate may actually be determined by the incoherence of the court’s recusal […]
The post And It Makes No Difference Whether the Needed Fifth Vote is Missing Because . . . appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]by Bill McBride Calculated Risk News Letter Economist Adam Ozimek and John Lettieri (CEO, Economic Innovation Group) have a new proposal to address the housing crisis in the United States:  How the next president can solve America’s housing crisis U.S. housing costs are out of control. The median home for sale was rarely more than four times […]
The post A Proposal to Address the Housing Crisis appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]You are going to hear a lot from Vance saying, “Trump would, Trump says, Trump did, etc. Vance has little foundation to support his commentary. It will always be they said and not I believe or say . . . That is the Republican version of a vice president. Feet made of sand . . […]
The post Vance . . . Trump administration would end funding to Planned Parenthood appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]What the Economists say Not likely. However it is a good economic and political ploy to play on voters. And Trump plays it well to stir up voters. The tariffs Trump proposes will hurt far more US citizens economically than immigrants coming to America legally or illegally. Trump is betting he can play on people’s […]
The post Are immigrants taking jobs from ‘native’ U.S. workers?  appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Eric Kramer’s Observation in his Post: “Pennsylvania canvassing report.” Eric: For those of you who are Harris supporters and looking for good news, one of my co-canvassers pointed out that we have seen no Trump canvassers and little evidence of past Trump canvass efforts (not much Trump literature on porches).  And we’ve been in very […]
The post Canvassing and the Election appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Initiative and Program Updates that have come into being in 2024 and also 2025 under the Biden Administration impacting Elderly Economics. The reporting is by AARP. Some of those who have passed into history that caught my eye too. Federal Income Tax Brackets for 2025 In the U.S. tax system, income tax rates are graduated, […]
The post Taxes, Postage, and Medicare Updates appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]– by New Deal democrat Prof. Menzie Chinn at Econbrowser, like me, is an Old School blogger, and like me, is focused on forecasting.  Yesterday he wrote a piece about supplementing the yield curve with a second condition, the private nonfinancial debt service ratio. Basically, what percent of income is needed to service debt. Doing […]
The post Why has the inverted yield curve failed? A fundamentals-based explanation appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Robert Reich speaks out about the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times failure to endorse a candidate for president. Both stop […]
The post Cowardice and intimidation at The Washington Post and L.A. Times appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Yep! I think the people are correct though about the inflationary actions of Biden during the PANDEMIC when the nation shut down and people were not working. The administration should not have doled out money in multiple Economic Stimulus packages during the pandemic. All those deficit spending and inflation . . . oh my! We […]
The post Economic Stimulus Over the Last Four Years and the Results of It appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Infidel’s commentary as taken from his blog Infidel753 Last week I posted on why the country needs a Democratic landslide.  This post is about the reasons why I think it’s most likely there will actually be one.  Those reasons why are, of course, the meat of the matter — anybody can claim to believe something, but the important […]
The post Why I anticipate a blue wave appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]This is not the complete report which can be found here: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good. The report questions our present knowledge of water how it is viewed and its usage. I will let the authors explain. The Problem Humanity Has Created Humanity has thrown the global water cycle off balance […]
The post A Brief on the Economics of Water Usage appeared first on Angry Bear.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]He wanted generals like Hitler’s, a leader he sometimes praised. “Do you really believe you’re not loyal to me?” Trump asked then–chief of staff General John Kelly. Kelly was clear: “I’m certainly part of the administration, but my ultimate loyalty is to the rule of law.” October 22, 2024 – by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson […]
The post Shifting the burden of supporting the country from the wealthy to average Americans appeared first on Angry Bear.