This is how Europe looks:
Euro Stoxx topped out at 5,550 last week and, after a small dip, they are down to 5,532 and up 1.45% on the day. The Euro has gone from $1.025 at the beginning of the month to $1.05 this morning – up 2.5% in 30 days against Trumps weakening Dollar.
Likewise the German DAX is up 400 points this week – also at all-time highs and up 1.78% this morning (post election) while US Futures are bouncing perhaps 0.5% (weak) after a very rough couple of days. Unlike Germany – even with Musk’s attempts to tilt the game (as well), the right wing-nuts were rejected in Germany with 83.5% turning out to vote – more than double the US participation rate that left us with this mess.
“This mess” is not inspiring much confidence with Investors (or Consumers) and money is flowing out of the US towards Europe and Asia – especially China, whose market has been booming since Trump took office – with the Hang Seng jumping from 19,000 to 23,000 (21%) since Trump’s policies came on line – way to be “tough” on China, Donnie – you really showed them!
Whether you love Trump or not, you can see the evidence of those who vote with their feet and those feet are heading for the exits (including Buffett) on the US markets. We’re waiting to see what kind of bounces we get this week but it’s not looking good and we are ONLY hedged for a 20% drop and we’ve used up 3% already – so we’ll be evaluating our positions very carefully – especially if Trump’s policies continue on the course that is driving investors to the exits.
Just last night, the House GOP passed a budget with a 217-215 vote (which will be called a “mandate” by the President) which will take a chainsaw to Medicaid with $2Tn in spending cuts to “pay for” $4.5Tn in tax cuts. Are you surprised? Please! This will be the largest Medicaid cut in American History which Rep. Gerry Connolly called “unconscionable attacks on the very fabric of our society, jeopardizing the well-being of millions of Americans.”
Medicaid provides(ed) Health Care for 93.8M American’s (30% of us). Not YOU, of course but low-income children and their parents, pregnant individuals, “people” (reclassification pending) with disabilities like physical, intellectual, developmental, and mental health conditions and, of course, adults age 65 and older and it accounts for 17.8% of all US Health Care Spending.
Medicaid finances 40% of all births in the US with much higher rates among specific populations:
- 65.9% of births to Black mothers
- 60.2% of births to Latino mothers
- 67.3% of births to American Indian/Alaska Native mothers
- 77.5% of births to mothers under age 19
- 50% of births in rural areas
The US is, of course, already the World leader in Maternal Mortality Rate, scoring double the rest of the World but cutting off Medicaid should make America truly great (again) – like in the good old days when women routinely died in childbirth and you would read on their Wiki pages things like “Mother of 7 – 3 survived.” MAGA!!!
For Infant Mortality, there is certainly room for improvement as the US is only the 4th worst developed nation – losing 5.8 of every 1,000 babies at birth but Hungary loses 6.6, Poland 6.7 and Slovakia has 7 infants die for each 1,000 births and we all laugh at Scandinavia, where 99.7% of the babies are delivered alive – suckers! Remember, life begins at conception – what happens on the other side is not our problem, right?
Reducing Medicaid means reducing preventive care and chronic disease management, which allows pandemics to take root far more easily. It also increases emergency room usage for what are usually preventable conditions, straining the hospital system even further because, surprisingly, eliminating (Medi)care does not eliminate disease, does it? Eliminating Medicare also creates greater barriers to care for those in healthcare deserts or with transportation issues – the same sort of thing eliminating the post office will do.
The money the Federal Government saves on Medicare will become an increased burden for the states and higher uncompensated care costs will simply be passed along to the insurance sector – who will still bill you for it in the end AND add on a profit for themselves.
In short DOGE is simply making the INEFFICIENT decision to take a working program and shift the burden back to local Government, who will bill you directly along with the Insurance Companies who will pass along the additional costs, along with additional profits to their Top 10% shareholders – the same Oligopoly who decided to cut Medicaid to pay for their own tax cuts. MAGA!!!
Oh, and let’s not forget that 5 of 8 (62.5%) nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid so don’t forget to factor in the cost of that extra room in your house for Grandma – and all the care that goes along with her. And, if you know someone with a disability – they’ll be needing private care as well – especially as businesses can now reject them for jobs based on their conditions but that’s OK, they won’t be able to access the buildings anyway – those rules have also been chainsawed.
We’ll see if there’s more than a dead cat bounce today, the first two days of the week have been far less than inspiring:
