Tag Archives: US EConomics

Credit conditions in Q2 improved, and are typical of an economy having come *out* of a recession, not going in to one  – by New Deal democrat The Senior Loan Officer Survey, the premier quarterly measure of the loose- or tight-ness of bank lending, was published yesterday for Q2. And since lending conditions are a long leading indicator for the economy, and several of the metrics contained in this release have a good and lengthy track record,...

The advent of CAR-T and CRISPR technologies are set to revolutionize cancer and genetic disease therapies, respectively. But with great hope comes great costs. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 100,000 people in the US have sickle cell disease, making it the most prevalent inherited blood disorder. Remarkably, the new gene therapies offer very promising early efficacy: exa-cel and lovo-cel demonstrated 93.5%...

by Robert Reich What really happened today on Wall Street First, a bit of personal history. Two weeks before October 19, 1987, I warned publicly that “in two weeks, the stock market will lose 20 percent of its value.” Then, on October 19, 1987, the S&P 500 had the biggest one-day fall in its history — dropping 20 percent. I was immediately deluged with letters and phone calls (no emails then) from people who wanted to sign up for my...

Economically weighted ISM indexes show (and forecast) an economy still – barely – in expansion  – by New Deal democrat As I was traveling last week, I did not write about several data series that I normally update. I plan on taking care of that this week. There’s also a little excitement in the markets today. Typically and when there has not been drastic *hard* news, the action is all about leveraged positions being unwound in disorderly...

Everybody knows that California is a “high-tax” state, right? Well, yes and no. Depends on where you are on the food chain. If your household is the top 1%, then California tax rates are 2nd highest, while Texas and Florida are 43rd and 50th, respectively.OTOH, if your household income is in the second quintile as a % of family income, things change: “California is about average, with a tax rate lower than either Texas or Florida. Texas has the ninth...

Angry Bears New Deal democrat; July jobs report: Establishment survey weak (but still positive), Household survey (even more) recessionary. Last week: “In the past few months, my focus has been on whether jobs gains are most consistent with a “soft landing,” i.e., no further deterioration, or whether deceleration is ongoing. In the last several months I have also pointed out that the Household Survey is probably understating growth because of its...

by Lloyd Alter Carbon Upfront! Over on Linkedin, UK Passivhaus developer Paul Richards complains, “There must be a clear step by step guide for Homeowners and occupiers, people are desperate to improve the efficiency and environment, but are lacking a guide as to what to do first, what are the small steps people can undertake without breaking an already stretched bank? Is there a common sense approach to retrofit?” This is something I...

On 1 July, I retired from my 37-year faculty gig. Among other things, this meant shifting from private insurance to Medicare. I haven’t yet used my Medicare coverage, but my wife, who retired two years ago as a faculty at a different university, has had no difficulties with her transition to Medicare. So far.The Medicare Conversion Factor (the multiplier used to calculate payment rates for each service or procedure) for 2025 will be the lowest since...

More on Pharmacy Benefit Managers and their influence on costs In case you forgot who the PBMs are? The FTC said in its interim report, the “increasing vertical integration and concentration enables the six largest PBMs to manage nearly 95 percent of all prescriptions filled in the United States.” Those six are Caremark Rx, LLC; Express Scripts, Inc.; OptumRx, Inc.; Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Inc.; Prime Therapeutics LLC; and MedImpact...

by Dean Baker Center for Economic and Policy Research I’m really wondering after the network ran the second piece in three days blaming a weak economy for the fact that restaurants can’t sustain their inflated pandemic profit margins. The basic story here is that many restaurant chains took advantage of the supply chain crisis to increase their profit margins. To be clear, this means that they raised their prices by more than their costs....