Medicare For All Cripples Health Care Sector Until very recently, the policy called “Medicare For All” (MFA) was a political non starter. Current polls, however, show a MUCH deeper than previously believed level of support. Albeit, with one HUGE reservation. Voters are MUCH less keen on Medicare the minute the price tag is mentioned: […]
Bloated Government And Exploding Deficits The Federal Government operates in a way that not one Congressperson operates. For the last 50 years, Congressionally approved Budgets have had larger and generally growing deficits. No responsible American, including those same Congresspeople, would spend 5% MORE than they earned every year. Congressmen and women, on the other hand […]
Corporate Buybacks Set Records. Corporations are repurchasing their own stocks in the open market at record levels. An illuminating chart from a recent research piece by Yardeni Research called “Stock Market Indicators: S & P 500 Buybacks & Dividends” is presented below. (https://www.yardeni.com/pub/buybackdiv.pdf). The figures in these charts indicate a couple of very key takeaways: […]
Bull Vs. Bear Debate Continues. As the major stock market indexes plunged during most of October, fear began to grip Wall Street. On October 29th, the intraday trading range for the stodgy Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly 1000 points. The lows lasted a fraction of a second, however. Within the next 24 hours, the […]
How Much Are Trade Wars Hurting So Far? The topic of Trade Wars is much less complicated than it may at first appear. A thorough examination of the background on Global Trade and how it affects the US Economy can be found here: “Can Anyone Win A Trade War?” (https://markonomics101.com/2018/07/09/can-anyone-win-a-trade-war/). Trade Wars became real about […]
The Interest Rate Bomb: Is The Fuse Now Lit? Recently, we noted the critical role that higher inflation and interest rates would play in The Inflection Process. Furthermore, the levels of interest rates seemed so low as to make very little logical sense (https://markonomics101.com/2018/09/03/inflection-point-part-5-interest-rates-inflation-and-inflection/.) Not only does “reported” inflation (currently 2.9% annually) seem to vastly […]
Interest Rates Continue to Edge Higher. Interest rates peaked in early 1980 at 20% on the Federal Funds Rate, the key short-term borrowing rate set by the Federal Reserve. Known as the Prime Rate years ago, it reflects very short maturities. Longer term rates, such as Five, Ten, or Thirty Year Maturities are set in […]
The tenets of Incentivism applied to the Student Loan Debt Problem
Incentivism is a type of economic system whose philosophy emphasizes the use of financial reward rather than punishment to alter an individual’s personal self-interest to make it consistent with that of society. An Introduction to Incentivism – Part 3: Government Intervention An ongoing bi-monthly series February 5, 2018 If you wish to either catch up or […]
