James Leckie
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luckyleckie.bsky.social
James Leckie
@luckyleckie.bsky.social
Proud Marylander. I rant about things I read. Opinions are mine.

I also answer to Mister Love
Better in 2024 than 2023, still historically bad
November 11, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Some books I really should read
...
November 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM
FWIW, this is for a 35yo making $62K/year in VA paying the full cost of the plan.

Plans like this are somewhat common in Switzerland with a higher OOP max here.

I think with some asteriks, the ACA functions like the Swiss model. If you think this is bad, emulate something else.
November 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Look, not all ideas are winners
November 11, 2025 at 2:12 AM
I believe it's true that real income/wealth inequality is worse, but material conditions seem to be broadly improving?
November 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Got married, so I had to update the bio.
November 2, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Severe obesity is turning around faster
October 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Of course only wealthier Americans are benefiting from GLP-1s
October 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
FWIW, which measure you use matters greatly.

Healthcare PCE inflation grew much more slowly than CPI (I think because PCE factors in goods substitution like generics?) And health PCE inflation has grown as slowly as general PCE or slower for some time.
October 20, 2025 at 11:54 PM
People were at their maddest about inflation when the bottom 80% saw their largest returns relative to inflation
October 18, 2025 at 1:13 PM
OTOH the gifts are sick
October 14, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Not that I'm complaining, but why?
October 13, 2025 at 11:00 PM
October 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I don't know who made this, but as many people need to see it as possible
September 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
San Franciso having dropping housing prices in the last 3 years and lower home inflation sine 2020 than Austin, Dallas, and many states in Florida was not in my bingo card.

Home price inflation in the South is still out of control since 2020.
August 31, 2025 at 12:37 AM
These things have been under discussion since Obama was president in my mid 20s. They're finally here.
August 20, 2025 at 12:57 AM
This city is overrun...with beatiful flowers and gardens
August 13, 2025 at 1:29 AM
What perfect album came out when you were sixteen?
July 27, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Some days, I think about how I could have stayed there
July 23, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Free childcare is no more socialist than K-12 schools
June 25, 2025 at 9:53 PM
This is at least another case of regional variation. The Northeast and parts of the Midwest are close to other countries in the OECD.

At least one interesting point is that the Southwest does the worst rather than parts of the Southeast
May 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Congress is currently aiming for this as an explicit goal.
May 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
David Brooks is kinda right that the 1970s and 1980s basically sucked ass for real wage growth.

Things really started to kick up around 1996 or so and stayed that way.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/o...
May 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Also, we end up spending almost as much subsidizing the avg Obamacare enrollee* as we would giving them Medicaid. For less generous care. Because we control Medicaid reimbursement and not Obamacare's.

*cuz most are lower income. It's way cheaper to partly subsidize premiums for middle class ppl.
May 17, 2025 at 12:53 PM
A couple tables for reference
May 14, 2025 at 12:21 PM