Tag Archives: Taxes/regulation

I am struggling with thoughts about status quo bias. I see many issues where a proposal to do something new is subject to severe scrutiny which is not applied to the implicit proposal to keep doing what we have been doing. The logic is small c conservative — better to stick with what we know than to take a chance. In many critically important cases, this makes no sense, as we are not in a steady state and things won’t stay the same (being what we...

New 20+ year record high mortgage rates begin to impact home sales; bifurcation in new vs. existing home prices continues  – by New Deal democrat In addition to updated reports on new home sales and prices, and existing home prices this morning, there’s some very important news on mortgage rates. Namely, at 7.51%, mortgage rates are the highest they have been since December 2000. Here’s what they looked like through the end of last week:...

Patients already paying price for PBMs diverting copay cash meant for needy, WSYX, Part 3, Darrel Rowland Part 3 of a 3-part investigation adding the detail of what is occurring with the PBMs. In a nut shell, Patients are told that they can avoid huge out-of-pocket spending for their drug and obtain their prescription for free. Yet what may not be clear to patients is that their deductible, coinsurance, and other out-of-pocket obligations are...

Simple commentary. Just started to receive information on increases. Gasoline is a no brainer. We drive a fuel efficient vehicle and do five over as opposed to what others do. It is interesting to hear the complaints. Thirty-gallon gasoline tank plus fast driving and you are getting into some serious money. You can only tell them if they will listen. Most will not and get belligerent. Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to extend their voluntary...

Too Big, too Loud, and Too fast appears to be the thing these days. Either they are jacked up squatting, large tired, multiple rear tires, altered mufflered, adjusted emission control to emit soot from acceleration, etc. Anything to gain attention for those who probably never received such while growing up. As children, we all had our favorite displays of machoism and then we grew up. Other things became more important than the vehicle we drove....

UAW-automakers negotiations pit falling wages against skyrocketing CEO pay: U.S. auto companies have the means to invest in EVs, pay workers a fair share, and still earn healthy profits | Economic Policy Institute, epi.org, Adam S. Hersh. Yet they are not paying Labor it’s overdue fair share of wages. United Auto Workers (UAW) members at the “Big 3” companies of Ford, General Motors (GM), and Stellantis are waiting to strike this week....

Our first new home purchase. I knew we were to have issues and would be working through them. It was new and something we had not had before. Arizona’s Registrar of Contractors says they are seeing an uptick in complaints against new home builders. Residents in Maricopa City is south of Phoenix where state highway 347 leads into the center of town. State Highway 347 is a coarse gravel highway with a speed limit of 65 except nobody obeys the limit...

If I was new to this dilemma, I would believe this is better news than prior announcements. But it is not good news, it is news coming too late for the borrowers holding exaggerated debt due to penalties, consolidation fees, interest, interest on that interest, and rate changes. If this was said a decade ago, it might make sense. It is only now, the Department of Education has caught up with how old some of these loans are today. Why does this...

These people are the lowest of the scum. They were always a shady type of business. There efforts were to target low-income neighborhoods. There actions are to keep their customers victims on a never-ending cycle of dependence through predatory practices. The high-interest rates and fees makes it difficult for borrowers to repay the loan. It results in a cycle of debt. Accordingly, and more recent, states have banned the practice of payday loans....

Has trade for materials, components, and product shifted away from China to be used in the U.S.? Maybe, maybe not, and maybe later. If you are going to manufacture in the US, you have to have the capability. It make take a bit to get up and ready. If we are buying product, etc. from Vietnam and Mexico, I would be planning a trip to each plant to see what the capabilities are. This is standard sourcing procedure. What is the capacity, conditions of...