I attended 7th grade in a building that was built of brick and wood. In 8th grade, I was moved to the new junior high, a formed concrete building in the modern fortress architecture style.Now, it seems, what was old is new again. Wood is making a comeback, with a focus on a green building strategy called “embodied” carbon reduction. The goal is to lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the construction processes.“Buildings account for more...
Read More »Trump and the Economy
As usual Trump is bleating about the upcoming election and how he will be cheated through fraudulent actions if he loses. Another point being made in this commentary is the pricing of goods which went up 14% while corporate profits when up five times as much. A Kroger Director admits such for some food products. My argument over the years has been prices can increase unduly and not due to increases in cost. Companies can increase prices because...
Read More »J&J Changing 340B Rules to Prevent Fraud
What is the issue(s) here is larger hospitals such as “Bon Secours (48 hospitals) has been slashing services” at its facility in a poorer, predominantly Black part of Richmond. At the same time, it is ‘investing in the city’s wealthier, white neighborhoods.’” By maintaining the Richmond hospital, it keeps access to the 340B program, provides drugs to the hospital in the wealthy section, and goes around the 340B rules. 340B hospitals are also...
Read More »Catching Up on Climate Risk Research
Two excellent short and very readable mini articles (to be redundant). Both pieces are pointing to a direction the Fed should take in the next year or sooner with regard to Climate Change. It is doubtful they will do so until catastrophe hits. What is a few $billion more in spending, right??? This aspect of our economy and how it can impact the economy should be taken into consideration in decision making and costs. This is partially why, these...
Read More »X-President’s Staff had an Altercation with Official at Arlington National Cemetery
I guess if you are X-President D. Trump and a civilian, nothing still applies to him. Even showing respect at Arlington. This is a man who called Vets losers. Trump: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” On McCain . . . “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.” About McCains funeral, “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015...
Read More »Domestic factory orders and production vs. real imports as economic forecasting tools
– by New Deal democrat Over the past year, I have downgraded the importance of manufacturing indicators as a forecasting tool for the economy as a whole. This post explores why and suggests a revised tool that may be a helpful short leading indicator. On Monday, durable goods orders rebounded sharply in July from their abrupt June decline. Still, as shown in the graph below, growth in both new factory orders and core capital goods orders has...
Read More »How will the Trump and Harris budgets affect the national debt?
Here’s the Penn Wharton Budget Model breakdown for how much each candidate’s economic proposals will affect the national debt:“We estimate that the Trump Campaign tax and spending proposals would increase primary deficits by $5.8 trillion over the next 10 years on a conventional basis and by $4.1 trillion on a dynamic basis that includes economic feedback effects. Households across all income groups benefit on a conventional basis.”“We estimate that...
Read More »Mortgage Lock-In is Coming to an End
QUARTZ The ‘Lock-in Effect’ is Easing. Here is What It means for the Housing Market Homeowners are beginning to give up on waiting for lower mortgage rates. That could be good news for potential homebuyers. In the first quarter of this year, six of every seven homeowners, or 86%, have a mortgage rate below 6%, according to a Redfin analysis of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s National Mortgage Database published Tuesday. That’s down from a...
Read More »Why people stay after local economies collapse
Why people stay after local economies collapse − a story of home among the ghosts of shuttered steel mills by Tracy Walsh The Conversation It was midday on a Saturday, and Simonetta led me from the open front door of her home in southeast Chicago to her sitting room and settled next to her husband, Christopher, on the couch. In the 1980s, Christopher had worked a few blocks away at U.S. Steel South Works, earning three times the minimum...
Read More »Superseding Indictment in the Election Interference Case
Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse on Jack Smith’s New Approach. Since trump now has certain immunities due to being a former pres, pres, president as declared by SCOTUS. Took a bit to call trump a president. Jack Smith takes a different approach in indicting trump as citizen trump. He carefully avoids reference to the office of president. This is going to be interesting as this new indictment will be appealed. In a Tuesday afternoon surprise,...
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