Tag Archives: Hot Topics

Recent New Yorker article, I read, “The Fight Within the American Medical Association“ What I found interesting is the AMA’s history in support and lack of it for better healthcare. It is going both ways while slowly advancing towards Single Payer. Out of necessity, the AMA has started to move closer to the reality of a Single Payer plan. Why now? Commercial healthcare insurance companies and Medicare Advantage are calling the shots on what...

RJS, MarketWatch 666, Producer Prices Rose 1.0% in January, but Annual Increases are Off the Record Highs The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 1.0% in January, as average prices for finished wholesale goods rose 1.3% while final demand for services rose 0.7% . . . that increase followed a revised 0.4% increase in December, when average prices for finished wholesale goods fell 0.1%, while margins of final...

“Labour v capital in the post-lockdown economy,” The Economist. As prices and wages rise, are workers or firms winning? Pulling a brief article from The Economist. Unlike 2008, Labor is surviving due to stimulus packages in 2020/2021, which petered out in 2008 leaving low wages and restrictive Unemployment Benefits. “An economy-wide measure of corporate margins is rising fast. Dario Perkins of TS Lombard, a financial-services firm, breaks...

Summary Commenter RJS: US oil supplies at a 13 year low, SPR at a 19 year low: total oil + products supplies at a 7 1/2 year low, distillate supplies at 26 month low after refinery freeze off The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending February 11th indicated that after a big drop in our oil exports, a major slowdown in our oil refining due to...

Reading the first few paragraphs of Last War Brain by Noah Smith, I thought I would strongly disagree with his post and decided to write an attempted rebutal. I find that I agree almost 100% and can mainly complain about what I assert is a bit of bait and switch. As always I advise readers to just click the link. Noah is a much better writer than I am (low bar) so my effort to summarize and explain might best be skipped (skip to ***) Noah argues...

Introduction I am fortunate to have made the acquaintance of Kip Sullivan from reading his articles and exchanging notes over the last couple of years. He is one of the more knowledgeable authorities on Single Payer as well as healthcare costs and price, commercial healthcare insurance, Traditional versus Advantage Medicare, and why today’s healthcare is not working efficiently. For example, commercial insurance administration costs are an...

This is a follow-on to Dan’s commentary on living on the East Coast or in the Southwest region of the country. I live in an area of the Southwest which is not experiencing the harsher impact of climate change. Even so, the higher temperatures create a drier atmosphere, thirsty for moisture, which it draws from a region’s soil, rivers, lakes and the snowpack. This atmospheric demand, called a vapor pressure deficit (“VPD” for short), has reached...

Without efforts to control human-caused global warming, we should consider the current extremes a preview of coming attractions.  While the mega drought continues in the west and southwest:  Although the 2021 summer monsoon was good – well above average in some places – it was not enough to counter the cumulative shortfalls of the preceding years. The cumulative precipitation for the 20-month period was the lowest on record, dating back to...

RJS, Focus on Fracking; Global oil shortage at 440,000 barrels per day in January as OPEC’s output falls 749,000 barrels per day short; 2021’s oil shortage revised to 1.5 million barrels per day OPEC’s January Oil Market Report Thursday of the past week saw the release of OPEC’s February Oil Market Report, which includes details on OPEC & global oil data for January, and hence it gives us a picture of the global oil supply & demand...

RJS, MarketWatch 666, “CPI Rose 0.6% in January on Higher Prices for Food, Clothing, Electricity, Used Vehicles, & Furniture; Annual Inflation Now at a 40 Year High” The consumer price index rose 0.6% in January, as higher prices for food, clothing, rent, electricity, used vehicles, airfares, furniture, and appliances and were only slightly offset by lower prices for gasoline, utility gas, and car and truck rentals . . . the Consumer Price...