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Too many folks no longer Ain’t Gotta Dollar!
What the Jobs Report Means for 2024
The conventional wisdom about Friday’s disappointing jobs data was that there was a little something for everyone. And, for once… the conventional wisdom is right…
They are called ‘Blow‘ – Jobs Joey!
The headline jobs number fell below Wall Street’s expectations, suggesting a softening of the labor market. The average workweek slipped as well, which is often the first sign of an employment downturn. Employers tend to reduce hours of their workforce before they start actually sending out the pink slips.
On the surface, this is bad news for the Biden campaign, which has hitched its wagon to the far-flung notion that the Biden presidency has been a blessing for the American economy. Weakening job growth makes that a harder sell – as would the spread of labor strife from Hollywood to the UAW. Continue reading
Kroger and Mark Cuban join forces to spread the availability of low cost prescription drugs
The partnership could be bad news for pharmacy benefit managers
Little by little, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are getting their comeuppance and American consumers are getting their due when it comes to the cost of prescription drugs.
Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs has cut a deal with Kroger that will give consumers in 35 states the power to find the lowest price for a prescription drug.
Anyone who’s watched ‘Shark Tank’ knows that Cuban is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy and he apparently sees an opportunity when it comes to high-priced drugs.
The Cost Plus business model is simple. It marks up each drug by 15% and adds a $3 pharmacy fee where applicable. The company makes a profit and customers can finally get their prescriptions filled without taking out a loan. (Continue to full column…)
Fed Raises Rates to Highest Level Since 2001
Jerome Powell
The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark lending rate on Wednesday to the highest level since 2001 to tackle above-target inflation, and signaled the possibility of further increases ahead.
The quarter percentage-point rise lifts the key lending rate to a range between 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent, the U.S. central bank said, adding that it will “continue to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy.”
The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) used similar language when it voted to hold rates steady in June, and the latest statement suggests that policymakers are mulling another pause at their next meeting in September. Continue reading
The Federal Debt Trap: Issues and Possible Solutions
“Rather than collecting taxes from the wealthy, the government is paying the wealthy to borrow their money.” ~ New York Times, July 7, 2023
Titled “America Is Living on Borrowed Money,” the editorial observes that over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), annual federal budget deficits will average around $2 trillion per year. By 2029, just the interest on the debt is projected to exceed the national defense budget, which currently eats up over half of the federal discretionary budget. In 2029, net interest on the debt is projected to total $1.07 trillion, while defense spending is projected at $1.04 trillion. By 2033, says the CBO, interest payments will reach a sum equal to 3.6 percent of the nation’s economic output.
The debt ceiling compromise did little to alleviate that situation. Before the deal, the CBO projected the federal debt would reach roughly $46.7 trillion in 2033. After the deal, it projected the total at $45.2 trillion, only slightly less – and still equal to 115% of the nation’s annual economic output, the highest level on record. Continue reading
GOLD: Takes A Licking And Keeps On Ticking
It doesn’t matter how much is thrown at the gold market; despite its recent price performance, it remains a highly resilient asset.
Yes, the precious metal still has some major ground to cover before we see new bullish interest coming into the market. But let’s not underestimate how much support there is for the precious metal at these elevated prices. Continue reading
Optimism is creeping back into the gold market, but prices are expected to remain below $1,950 this week
Sentiment in the gold market is slowly shifting back to the bullish side as the precious metal’s resilience in the face of rising bond yields shines through. However, some analysts are warning that there is still insufficient momentum to push gold prices through critical resistance levels. Continue reading
The FREAK SHOW: Treasury Increases National Debt By Over $850 Billion in Just One Month
A month ago, the fake debt ceiling fight ended and Congress suspended the federal government’s borrowing limit for two years. Since the debt ceiling deal, the US Treasury has added a staggering $851 billion to the national debt.
Within a week of the debt ceiling suspension, the national debt cracked $32 trillion and as of June 30, it stood at $32.33 trillion. Continue reading
What Charles Ponzi’s Scheme and US Entitlement Programs Have in Common
The structure of Charles Ponzi’s scheme must have impressed the policy makers coming of age in the 1930s, because they would use the same structure for the nation’s new Social Security system.
When Charles Ponzi’s investment opportunity to sell international postage stamps was exposed to be a scam in 1920, its basic premise would forever be associated with the man’s name. A Ponzi Scheme promises investors massive returns on an investment that does not really exist. Instead, unknown to everyone but the person or people running it, old investors are paid with money that comes in from new investors. This set up usually goes undetected until the one day when the well of new investors dries up and the money stops flowing in. Continue reading
King Andrew and the Bank
Andrew Jackson stares down the national bank and wins.
“Jackson Slaying the Many-Headed Monster,” 1828. Private collection, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Art Library
On July l0, 1832, President Andrew Jackson sent a message to the United States Senate. He returned unsigned, with his objections, a bill that extended the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, due to expire in 1836, for another fifteen years. As Jackson drily noted, the bill was presented to him on the Fourth of July, a day freighted with portent.
Today Jackson’s Bank Veto and the political conflagration known as the “Bank War” that it touched off seem arcane and nearly incomprehensible. While misdeeds among the rich and powerful still garner headlines and incite congressional inquiries, the core instruments of our economic system-the network of banks capped by the Federal Reserve; the corporate form of business enterprise; the very dollars in our wallets, issued and guaranteed by the federal government – are utterly taken for granted. That these could have been the subject of controversy, that anyone could seriously contemplate organizing American capitalism differently, seems nearly unthinkable. Andrew Jackson is recalled today, when recalled at all, for other things, primarily as the architect of forced Indian removal. His face on the $20 bill is a mystery to many, an outrage to some, and, to the knowing, a curious irony. (Continue Reading…)
