The Angry Bear

This is kind of an interesting story. The former Surgeon General to Trump is complaining about his ER bill after walking up the 2700 foot high Camelback mountain in AZ. Done it. That is not a high climb. I suspect the heat and insufficient water or hydration did him in. The other point is he is complaining about a healthcare bill. This is the man who had the president’s ear. I doubt he brought up the cost of healthcare to trump once. As far as a...

It is hard to believe that people would risk their lives or their children’s lives by not getting the measles vaccine. It was bad when we were growing up in the fifties. I am sure Joel can add to this information. A worldwide crisis only because we let it become one through ignorance. Measles Is Preventable. How Did the World End Up Back Here? by Ava Easton MedPage Today I remember being very sick when I had measles as a child. I was...

Florida Legislature agreed to pass the optional Medicaid expansion. A year later it says no. The federal government pays about 69 cents of every dollar spent on the program. Florida still wants kids to pay also. More than 22K children dropped from Florida KidCare in 2024 as state challenges federal eligibility protections by Christine Jordan Sexton Florida Politics AB: In a move that some have called “egregious,” or glaringly ignorant in...

This morning starting at 7AM and 30 minutes apart. I ran across all two healthcare commentaries on MedPage and one on Florida Politics. No mistake on three healthcare posts posted in a row. Purposeful. Short commentaries. Good Reads. Discussion provoking. ...

 – by New Deal democrat Yesterday I discussed how virtually the entire issue of inflation remaining above the Fed’s target was the housing sector. Let me start today’s post where I left off yesterday: namely, that the net level of divergence between total headline inflation and shelter inflation of 1.15% is one of the highest such divergences in history, and the longest such big divergence. Here again is the graph: Today I want to discuss...

How Famine and Starvation Could Affect Gazans for Generations to Come by Neroli Price, Salman Ahad Khan and Gabrielle Berbey Reveal News Research on World War II’s Dutch “Hunger Winter” has terrifying implications for Gaza’s malnourished children – and then for their children. Famine is already happening in parts of Gaza, a top U.S. humanitarian official  publicly acknowledged last week for the first time. After six months of Israeli war...

by Steve Roth Wealth Economics This post is prompted by Matthew Klein’s (very wonky) post about recent changes in QE/QT, and the Fed’s balance sheet. It prompted me to do a quick calculation that I’ve been meaning to get to: when household wealth increases (due to stock-market price runups or really anything else), what effect does that have on household spending in the next year? I’m going to start with a bald two-part claim. A. The...

 – by New Deal democrat There’s no economic news of significance until Wednesday’s report on existing home sales. But in the meantime I’ve read a number of takes slicing and dicing last week’s inflation report that I thought missed the mark, so let me take the opportunity today and tomorrow to discuss the essence of the US’s consumer inflation situation. Basically it is almost *all* about shelter.  Take almost any of the graphs, charts, and...

OK, not really.  But this is real (politico, via Political Wire): The expectations game … Trump also returned to another golden oldie last night: proposing a drug test for his debate opponent. He used this tactic in 2016 against Clinton. The gist is that if his opponent looks good at a debate, it’s only the result of illegal substances. “I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union,” Trump said. “He was high as a kite. I said, ‘Is...

 by Elise Gould EPI Average hourly wage growth has exceeded inflation for 12 straight months, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this morning. This real (or inflation-adjusted) wage growth is a key indicator of how well the average worker’s wage can improve their standard of living. As inflation continues to normalize, I’m optimistic more workers will experience real gains in their purchasing power. The dark blue line...