Category Archives: Economics

Yes, SVB Was a Bailout

Posted on March 23, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Just not of the people many people thought it was. Last week, some asshole with a blog noted this about the Silicon Valley Bank takeover: What I can’t wrap my head around is how stupid the venture capitalists who backed … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Economics | 1 Comment

It’s Like Über, but for Deposit Insurance

Posted on March 13, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

In light of the Silicon Valley Bank bank run and subsequent rescue, David Dayen points out there’s a solution for businesses, known as Insured Cash Sweep, which chops up your money into FDIC-insurable units of $250,000. That would mean these … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Economics | 3 Comments

When Government Spending Prevents Personal Debt

Posted on February 24, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

It’s a pretty obvious phenomenon: when federal spending is cut, personal debt rises (or at least wealth declines). This will show up in credit scores (boldface mine): Today, we look at a big, fat map of credit scores reproduced from … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Economics, Healthcare | Comments Off on When Government Spending Prevents Personal Debt

More from the Green Eye Shade Brigade on Long COVID

Posted on February 16, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Arguably, when a medical phenomenon is large enough to show up in unemployment data, it’s time to take it seriously. Last week, we noted that the people who have to pay for long COVID, either through disability payments or higher … Continue reading →

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Actuaries, Insurers, and Long COVID

Posted on February 9, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Oh my? It is a stunning indictment of our public health system that the one group I don’t think is trying to gaslight us on long COVID isn’t our federal public health officials, but actuaries. From that well-known socialist news … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, Economics, News Media | 2 Comments

The Next Thing You Know, They’ll Want a Union or Something

Posted on February 7, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Reading this article about how people who have the option to not work shitty, lower-paying jobs are, for some crazy reason, choosing to work better, higher-paying jobs, it’s really striking how the Federal Reserve isn’t even trying to pretend that … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Comments Off on The Next Thing You Know, They’ll Want a Union or Something

Long COVID Is Now an Economic Problem

Posted on January 12, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

While I’m all for workers being in the (non-Tesla) driver’s seat, this is a bad reason for labor shortages (boldface mine): Some 1.5 million people missed work because of an illness last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, Economics | Comments Off on Long COVID Is Now an Economic Problem

Biden Must Mint the Coin

Posted on January 10, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

(from here) For those who aren’t aware of what “mint the coin” refers to, due to legislation about types of coins that the U.S. Treasury can mint, there is actually, as stupid as this seems, an option to mint a … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Conservatives, Democrats, Economics | 6 Comments

The Cost of Public Four-Year Colleges

Posted on August 30, 2022 by mikethemadbiologist

I realize student debt is so last week, but here’s the cost of a public, four-year college education, including tuition, fees, room and board, adjusted to 2020 dollars (data from here): It’s increased three-fold since 1980–and, yes, despite the historical … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Education | 3 Comments

The Economics (So Far) of Long COVID

Posted on May 5, 2022 by mikethemadbiologist

And it’s not good (boldface mine): The goal of the research was to estimate the prevalence and cost of Long COVID. Here are some of the key findings: 22 million U.S. adults are living with Long Covid (LC) – close … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Comments Off on The Economics (So Far) of Long COVID