Authored by Chris Rossini via The Mises Institute,
Ever since the US government began to sink its claws into the medical industry a good 50 or so years ago, attempts at reducing costs have failed again and again. This is par for the course whenever government invades an industry.
Trying to reform this Frankenstein with either Obamacare, or Trumpcare, will solve nothing.
The problem is structural. Tinkering with this or that will just waste more time.
Well, the Fed said the recent disappointing economic data would be "transitory" and based on the just released jobs report, it may have been somewhat right, because after growing only by a revised 79,000 jobs in March, payrolls rebounded in April, rising by more than the expected 190K to 211K, in line with the optimistic whisper estimates. The not so great news: March payrolls were revised materially lower, and denying expectations of a solid upward revision, March payrolls were said to rise by only 79K, below the 98K initially reported.
As we detailed earlier, Shake-Shack shares crashed to record lows after the fast-food restaurant as increased labor costs (thanks to Obama's minimum-wage-hikes) crushed margins and caused menu price hikes that slowed demand...
Shack-level operating profit margins decreased 300 basis points to 25.2%, primarily due to increased labor and related expenses resulting from increases in hourly wages that were implemented at the end of fiscal 2016...
Senator Bernie Sanders said in a CNN interview tonight that, in its present form, the Trumpcare bill was not going to pass through the Senate.
'This bill, in its current form is not getting through the Senate, said Sanders.
After the abysmal March labor report, all we - and the Fed - can say is that April better be good, or else Yellen's claim of "transitory weakness" will simply be the latest nail in the coffin of Fed credibility. Here is the consensus for the key numbers the BLS will report at 8:30am ET on Friday morning.