Tag Archives: Hot Topics

Ukraine is getting much more advanced offensive weapons . . . This seems to mark a major shift, a commitment to helping Ukraine go on offense and win.  Open questions . . . How far will Ukraine’s partners go?  Infantry fighting vehicles today, maybe tanks, ATACMs, planes, etc. tomorrow?  How big a threat is the Republican controlled House of Representatives?  Will Ukraine be able to avoid a drawn out war of attrition?  Can it launch successful...

Tyler Cowen points us to YouChat, a new AI chatbot, that as far as I can see after studying this carefully for 15 seconds is supposed to be more up to date than the OpenAI bot and integrated with a search engine which naturally makes it the next new thing and presumably worth billions of dollars to potential investors. In the interest of being scrupulously fair, I decided to give YouChat a chance to answer the same question that OpenAI fumbled...

From the Washington Post comes this map of temperatures over much of North America, a result of the artic blast and winter storm begun today, Thursday. In the Boston area rain is expected. The temperature tonight actually is rising from from about 43 degrees F. to the low 50’s F. , to continue throughout Friday, and then eventually falls to 12 degrees F. by Saturday morning. How is your weather? ...

November existing home sales: prices have unequivocally turned down  – by New Deal democrat Existing home sales do not have much actual economic impact, since the primary economic activity generated by housing is the construction. But they do help tell us a great deal about pricing. For the record, sales continued their relentless decline this year, down to 4.09 million on an annualized basis, down almost 1/3rd from their recent February...

Another blast from the past before I get into some newer information. It is still very relevant. It lays a foundation for other work I intend to do. This should come as no surprise as I have written on the topic of Healthcare Costs and Its Drivers before. In particular, the overriding statistic from an earlier post was 50% of the increase in healthcare costs was due solely to price increases between 1996 and 2013 (JAMA, Factors Associated With...

November housing permits and starts: the biggest news is not in the headlines  – by New Deal democrat The report on housing construction for November was very much a tale of two very different trends – and the most important one will almost certainly be under-reported. Housing permits issued declined to 1.342 million annualized, the lowest number since June 2020, and before the pandemic the lowest since July 2019. The even more reliable...

According to U.S. Department of Education data, total enrollment in teacher preparation programs in Michigan has also been steadily dropping. More than 23,000 prospective teachers were in the pipeline in 2008. That figure eventually dipped below 7,000 in 2016 before increasing slightly to around 12,000 in 2019. “New program launching to address Michigan’s teacher shortage,” (wxyz.com), Brett Kast, Jordan Nagel. So rather than sit back and wait...

The moral and strategic importance of a Ukrainian victory seems hard to overstate.  A protracted, frozen conflict would be a humanitarian disaster for Ukrainian civilians in Russian occupied areas and war zones, it would lead to continued slaughter of troops on both sides, it would strip Ukraine of critical ports, it would embolden further adventurism by Russia and by China against Taiwan.  An extended war might cause or contribute to a worldwide...

Job growth beginning in Q2 looks to be substantially revised downward  – by New Deal democrat Last week the Philadelphia Fed published a working paper suggesting that in the second quarter of this year only 10,500 jobs were actually added, rather than the 1,047,000 as indicated by the monthly Establishment survey.  Here’s their graph: Here’s what you need to know about the QCEW (Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages):  The late...

I have no idea what is going on in Musk’s head, but hoo-boy.  Overpaying, firing essential employees, scaring off advertisers, implementing half-baked policies then quickly reversing himself, provoking regulators.  Now there are indications/rumors he is getting ready to bail.  And the problem for Musk goes way beyond Twitter.  Tesla’s valuation is insane.  It’s been based on nothing more than Musk’s showmanship for some time.  Despite declining...