The Angry Bear

In Michigan, we had a feeder about 20 feet from the deck. We would get different species . Flickers, Downey Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Nut Hatches, Wrens, the common sparrows, etc. The Nut Hatches and Chickadees were the acrobats and would hang upside down. When the feeder would empty out the Chickadees would hang around on the feeder hanger and watch me take the feeder down. I would fill it, rehang it, and they would still be looking down or...

Haley  Nikki Haley is staying in the race for the Republican nomination, at least for now.    Why?  If she only cares about becoming president, this year could be her best shot even with Trump way ahead of her in the polls.  Trump may be convicted or become incapacitated, and she could win the nomination as the last woman standing.  It is far from clear her political brand will be in better shape with Republican primary voters 4 years from...

Both production and transportation are down from 2022 peaks; why wasn’t that enough to cause a recession?  – by New Deal democrat While I have written about how the Index of Leading Indicators failed last year, as the loosening of and disinflation in supply chains overwhelmed the effects of Fed tightening, it wasn’t as if Fed tightening had no effect. In fact in the typical places where we would first expect to find those effects – namely, in...

Steve Roth  (at Asymptosis) I just had occasion, in replying to a correspondent, to reiterate much of the thinking in my recent MMT Conference presentation. I thought it might be a useful and comprehensible form for some readers, so I’m reproducing it here. I’ve also explained this at somewhat painful length here. Correct me if I am wrong but what you are saying extends MMT into the private sector. The govt boosts balance sheets with...

Mission of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs The following is Mark Cuban’s pitch on supply drugs. If you do not have healthcare insurance which pays for drugs you more than likely going to pay list unless you have a drug store discount such as GoodRx. Mark Cuban talking pharmaceuticals and costs: We started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company because every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines. If you don’t have insurance or have a...

In the Washington Post David Lynch (no not that David Lynch) reports that “Falling inflation, rising growth give U.S. the world’s best recovery.” lternative titles Handling the blue team with velvet gloves (not used as it alleges bias when the article merely reports the facts without Ballance (TM) for once) Twin Peaks (inflation and GDP not used as it might invite a downturn and I am superstitious) The excellent article (just click...

CNN Tells Us, Young People can’t Afford Homes Even Though more Young People have Homes now than when Trump was in the White House, CEPR, Dean Baker Major media outlets continually push the theme that young people can’t buy homes even though a larger share of households headed by someone under age 35 own homes today than when Donald Trump was in the White House. CNN pushed its entry into the contest for the best “Death of the American Dream” piece...

Jamie Dimon says lower-income people need more help and he’d ‘pay for it by taxing the wealthy a little bit more’ Fortune Taxing the Rich? If he really wants to help the poor? Allow the tax breaks for individuals in the upper 20% sunset. reverse the tax breaks, and tax income from foreign enterprises. A little bit more below. Didn’t we just have a conversation about Jamie’s beliefs on taxes here at Angry Bear? If you forgot, you can find it...

The single most significant thing Republicans could do to reduce undocumented immigration is to require E-Verify for all hires and jail employers who don’t use it or who hire in spite of it. Why not use this?“At the same time, ordinary economic migrants could be most effectively dealt with via E-Verify. If you make it hard to hire undocumented workers, they’ll stop coming. The problem is that even immigration hawks tend to downplay this because it...

Weekly Indicators for January 22 – 26 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Every now and then the data has a particularly noisy week, and this past week seems to have been one, as a number of – especially coincident – indicators hit an air pocket. Perhaps more concerning is that the 4 week total of tax withholding YoY has gone negative again. But consumer spending, in both nominal and...