Tag Archives: Hot Topics

This is supposed to be the experts bringing data to the public. Prestigious name coupled with a doctorate and Masters. Tied to exceptional universities. So what gives? Read on as this information was used in court and cited by a judge. — Two of the studies were cited by a federal judge in the case against the abortion pill. Publisher Retracts Three Abortion Studies, MedPage Today, Rachael Robertson February 8, 2024 Sage Journals...

Weekly Indicators for February 5 – 9 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Most notable is that two of the long leading indicators – interest rates and corporate profits – have turned from very negative to at very least neutral, increasingly suggesting better economic news ahead. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to the economy, and reward me...

“Using the Joint European Torus (JET) — a huge, donut-shaped machine known as a tokamak — the scientists sustained a record 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel. That’s enough to power roughly 12,000 households for the same amount of time.”Progress, yes, but incremental.“And myriad challenges remain. Khan points out that the team used more energy to carry out the experiment than it generated, for...

And now for something completely different: portents of DOOOM  – by New Deal democrat. February 9, 2024 The lion’s share of the employment news recently has been very good. But not all of it. In particular, several of the annual revisions to the Household jobs Survey, and several other measures of employment and unemployment have been downright gloomy. Since I haven’t discussed them at any length, I thought I would collect them all here....

Not all genes, their mutations, and the conditions caused by those mutations are overwhelmingly complex. We’ve known for decades that sickle cell disease is caused by a specific nucleotide change at a specific position in the human adult beta globin gene, and we can predict the consequences to a patient with the disease to a high degree of accuracy. The fact that there are so many CRISPR trials underway now is testament to the clarity of our...

From a comment thread over at jabberwocking.com:“The walls are more a sign of desperation than power. A better way is to fix Central America so there is a larger buffer between the US and the problems in South America. Fixing includes making conditions in the continent prosperous enough for all that we don’t have hordes desperately attempting dangerous journeys.”Exactly. Walls don’t work. But the GOP would rather spend billions on futility than spend...

Scenes from the January jobs report: revisions changed the picture in the Establishment Survey  – by New Deal democrat Last Friday’s jobs report contained a number of annual revisions which change what the trend line for the last year looks like. Particularly the extent to which there has been continued deceleration, or even a downturn, in a number of significant statistics in the Establishment Survey. In the below graphs, the original...

Job and Wage Growth Surge in January Center for Economic and Policy Research, Dean Baker I believe this report by Dean Baker to be a bit premature. If you are keeping up with New Deal democrat, he cites reasons why this still can go either way at this point. One reason is the Fed’s foot still on the brake. Another is manufacturing workweek is practically screaming “recession.” And U6 underemployment rate increased again. We could be near the...

McDonald’s wants to win back low-income consumers, Laura Bratton @ QUARTZ US customers making less than $45,000 stayed away in 2023. That could continue this year, executive says . . . McDonald’s chief financial officer Ian Borden told investors Monday (Feb. 5) that he’s looking for ways to win back the low-income customers the company lost last year. US consumers whose incomes fall below $45,000 are really important to the fast food...

The Senior Loan Officer Survey makes an important turn   – by New Deal democrat The Senior Loan Officer Survey is a long leading indicator, telling us about credit conditions that typically turn worse a year or more before the economy turns down, and improve just at the economy is ready to turn up. The one downside is that the information is only reported Quarterly, and with a one a one month lag. Which is a way of saying that data for Q4 of...