Tag Archives: Hot Topics

I have written on women being included in clinical trials in 2019. The article I was asked to write included Clinical Trials, reviewing the issues with Essure, and also Maternal Mortality. Three issues which had much detail and information, difficult to cover it all , and could have been much longer. A Woman’s Right to Safe Healthcare Outcomes, Angry Bear. This article is more recent and includes additional and more up to date detail. The...

AB: The link below the chart developed by Josh Bivens is to find subsidies or funds granted to towns, cities, counties, and states under the American Rescue Plan Act. For example, one small city i live in was granted $6.7 millions to which they wish to apply for an eight-mile water pipeline to an area northwest of the city. It is for new construction rather than improving the infrastructure they already have in place. Mind you, we are living on the...

Weekly Indicators for August 14 – 18 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat [First of all, a reminder: I am on vacation for the next week, so don’t expect daily posts, especially if no significant economic data is released.] My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. While collapsing commodity prices have buoyed the shorter term leading indicators, the renewed increase in interest rates has made the long leading indicators even...

The importance of 10 (and 20) year new highs in interest rates  – by New Deal democrat As you may have already read elsewhere, interest rates on the 10 year US Treasury just made a new 10+ year high. Perhaps more importantly, 30 year mortgage rates made a new 20+ year high: Both rates are slightly above their previous highs from last October: Almost always in the past, interest rates peaked *before* the Fed finished hiking interest rates....

Successful industrialists financial Wall Street bankers whose business practices were often are considered ruthless and unethical, capturing portions of the market, and bleeding it dry. Not much left of the hollowed-out companies other than a name and the empty buildings they once occupied. Good commentary on Simon and Schuster being bought by KKR. Is Robber Barrons still a term in use? How private equity is destroying the labors of love,...

Initial claims travelin’ man edition: still below cautionary levels  – by New Deal democrat Initial claims were 250,000 last week. The 4 week average increased to 234,250. Continuing claims with a one week delay were 1.716 million. Most importantly, YoY the4 week moving average is up 9.5%: This is well below the 12.5% YoY increase necessary to trigger a new caution. Jobless claims: a good example of why my forecasting discipline...

Industrial production improves, with help from vehicle production: travelin’ man edition  – by New Deal democrat Industrial production increased 1.0% in July. Its manufacturing component increased 0.5%. Total production is still down -0.6% from its peak last autumn, while manufacturing is down -01.%: These are not recessionary numbers.  It’s worth emphasizing that the unspooling of pandemic related bottlenecks is significantly affecting...

TANSTAAFL. There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Someone pays, somehow. The standard textbook example is pilots who refill their plane at a gas station that offers them a “free” steak dinner while charging five cents a gallon more than another station at the same airport. The pilot and co-pilot get $50 dinners for free, the gas station gets an “extra” $150 for the gas sold, and everyone is happy. I believe this story is better at...

In housing construction, the last domino still refuses to fall: Travelin’ Man edition  – by New Deal democrat [First, a blogging note: I will be traveling for the next week and a half. I’ll keep posting the data, but the posts are likely to be brief, and may be a day late. On days when there is no data, I will probably not post at all.] When it comes to housing construction, I’ve been waiting for the last domino to fall. Once again in July,...

Paul Krugman has the amazing ability to get me (briefly) interested in economic theory. He writes that the (non provisional) IRA has had a larger than expected impact on investment writing: A new blog post from Heather Boushey of the Council of Economic Advisers argues that Biden’s industrial policy helps solve what she calls the “chicken and egg problem,” in which private-sector actors are reluctant to invest unless they’re sure that others will...