Grassroots

Book Review and Analysis: “Seeing Like a State”

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David Zetland, “The one-handed economist “Sometimes you just want the answer” I read this 1998 book by James C. Scott (1936-2024) while I was in graduate school (maybe 20 years ago). I loved it then and — after re-reading it recently — I love it now. This is one of my top 10 books of all time. I’ve also enjoyed […]

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A little good news

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“The headline election was Romania’s presidential vote, with liberal Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan coming out the winner ahead of nationalist George Simion.” *snip* “Poland was also holding a presidential election, and Polish TV’s exit poll indicated that Warsaw’s liberal Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski received 30.8%, while national-conservative historian Karol Nawrocki won 29.1% of the vote.” “The […]

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In Q1, bank conditions for loans appear to have darkened

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 – by New Deal democrat Until Thursday we are once again in a data drought this week. In the meantime, there are a few points I want to address, including the very important Moody’s downgrade of US debt. But there was one important piece of data that came out last week that I didn’t discuss yet: […]

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What Trump Wants From Tariffs … and What the U.S. Might Get Instead

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Commentary from April which still has some relevance as the Tariffs still exist. Trump did decrease them but we will still suffer issues of higher pricing. The administration hopes to bring back manufacturing and reduce trade deficits. But renegotiating trade may damage global trust in the U.S. What Trump Wants From Tariffs … and What […]

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23andMe resurrected

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For most people, 23andMe is synonymous with direct-to-consumer genomics. It isn’t DNA sequencing, it’s microarrays that are capable of detecting many annotated variants. As with all direct-to-consumer genomics, the cost to consumers was supposed to be subsidized by the aftermarket for genetic information. In the event, 23andMe declared bankruptcy recently, and there was a question […]

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Train Drain

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I know of Phillip Longman more so from his authoring a couple books. One called “The Best Care Anywhere” about the Veterans Administration. This is an article about deregulation and what happens when private equity takes over. It is a good read. Deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, […]

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Rural Hospitals Financial Losses, Closures, and Revenue

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Part One of this report is an introduction to Losses, Revenue, and Costs incurred by Rural Hospitals. I have broken the report up so as to allow a reader some time to absorb the information on Rural Hospitals. It is a bit lengthy although it does have numerous graphs and charts. The report itself was […]

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No Social Security Scandal . . . Just Fake News . . .

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Gee, “Whata Surprise” . . . There is no overwhelming Social Security Scandal or Fraud. A newly reported document shows that “anti-fraud checks” implemented at the Social Security agency found virtually no improper benefit claims. This find, while slowing payments substantially. ‘A Huge Scandal’: Internal Doc Exposes Trump-Musk Hunt for Social Security Fraud as a […]

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Moody’s is bearish on America

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While neither the stock market nor bond credit rating business are the economy, changes in the stock market and bond credit ratings are often harbingers. “Moody’s announced Friday evening it was lowering the US score to Aa1 from Aaa. A gauge of the greenback fell 0.6%, US stock futures slid and Treasuries’ yield curve steepened […]

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Medicaid’s Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas

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In analyzing the Medicaid cuts under consideration by House Republicans for inclusion in budget reconciliation legislation, it is often easier to examine each specific proposal in isolation. But singular reviews does not paint a complete picture It is important to take a step back and look at how these proposals would interact with each other and […]

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Fighting the Trump/DOGE cuts to biomedical research

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The link is to a long but cogent piece in Talking Points Memo. Unlike the author, I long ago appreciated the threats posed by the massive cuts to NIH funding. But Josh does the extra work of thinking about how this anti-science juggernaut could be halted. Read the whole thing, but here are the nut […]

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Supreme Court analysis: Donald Trump CECOT plan runs into wall

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It has been a while since I put something up concerning the Supreme Court commonly called SCOTUS and their decisions. This is one case, I guess one could call this a railroading by the Trump administration. Making quick decisions and do not give enough time for the accused to respond to allegations before action is […]

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Energy Star Efficiency Program

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You may think the Energy Star program is about helping industry by making it easier and less expensive to manufacture product. Not particularly so; but, the Energy Star on a product could promote greater sales. Much of the costs of manufacture are low as it is and due to offshoring manufacture of product. When manufacturing […]

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You do need a weatherman

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Yesterday, tornados touched down in St. Louis. We lived in St. Lous for 40 years before moving to New England, and in those 40 years, the closest I can recall a tornado touchdown was at Lambert-St. Louis airport. Climate change is making for more severe weather, and DOGE has cut staff at NOAA and the […]

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The Trade War is Not Over

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As you get further down in the latest Krugman piece, you will read: “Everything is at most an announcement about what tariff rates will be for the next 90 days.” A lot of talk and threats and no reality. We are constantly off balance due to Trump’s (as the Pres) threats. The Trade War Isn’t […]

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Most Medicaid adults under age 65 are working already . . .

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If this was about people taking advantage of Medicaid, Unemployment, or other government programs, there might be a reason to do what Congress is doing. Instead, elected Republican Senators and Representatives are moving in mass to cut programs so as to maintain Trump’s 2017 TCJA tax breaks which was passed under reconciliation. The tax break […]

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Housing permits and starts still rangebound, but with units under construction down almost -20%, is the last shoe finally dropping?

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 – by New Deal democrat In April total permits (dark blue in the graph below) declined -69,000 on an annualized basis to 1.412 million, while the less volatile single family permits (red, right scale) number declined -50,000 to 922,000. The slightly lagging and much more volatile starts number (gray, narrow) rose 22,000 to 1.361 million annualized: […]

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