The Angry Bear

by Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson Letters from an American Pres. Joe Biden, Dem Governor Tony Evers, and Microsoft are bailing out Wisconsin from trump’s “eighth wonder of the world” lie in Racine WI with Taiwan’s Foxconn. When this was occurring, Repub. Gov. Scott Walker with Repub legislators committed to a $3.3 billion subsidy and tax incentive package in support of the pirates. Racine did get upgraded upgrading roads, sewer system,...

by Paul Kiernan AB: I have written about West Virginia on several occasions. If you want some history on its politics and issue, you can go here, here, here, here, here, etc. and further back. One time, Senator Joe Manchin took to the Senate floor to preach about the death of a young and pretty West Virginian. He blamed the two appointees to the FDA for being the cause of this. West Virginia has it problems with a shortage of workers and a dislike...

And somewhat blind. Several months ago, I had an operation on my one eye to fix the retina. My eye surgeon and doctor was Derek Kunimoto. I was happy to have him as I know how thorough the Japanese can be having worked with them for years. I was Kunimoto-San’s last surgical patient. As he left and I was half doped up, I called out his name and he said “Yes.” I said “thank you.” WE had some good conversation about Asia and Japan. I have had...

 – by New Deal democrat AB: New Deal democrat reviews the Establishment Survey and again it differs from the Household Survey in a positive way. On Monday I wrote that the Household survey portion of the jobs report was recessionary for the second time in three months. But I pointed out that there was a very large divergence in jobs growth in the past 24 months, amounting to 1.7% of the prime age workforce, between that survey and the...

McDonald’s and other fast-food giants are struggling in the inflation economy. qz.com The inflation economy has come for Fat Food. As I read this, I would look at their costs. They talk about their reductions in Labor. It looks more to me like inventory turns and their investment in it. That is itself could make them more competitive. I would have to take a deeper dive into the industry to figure it out. ~~~~~~~~ Inflation has fallen far...

 – by New Deal democrat The Senior Loan Officer Survey is a long leading indicator, telling us about credit conditions that typically turn worse a year or more before the economy turns down, and improve just at the economy is ready to turn up. The big drawback of this series is that the information is only reported Quarterly, and with a one a one month lag. As I indicated in my introductory note yesterday, data for Q1 was released yesterday....

Inflation Is Scrambling Americans’ Perceptions of Middle-Class Life, businessinsider.com, Jennifer Sor Yes, we have inflation. It is a given. Inflation is scrambling the lives of middle-class Americans. Income is not keeping up with the costs of maintaining a Middle-Class Life. I have sat here in AZ watching this play out in the nation. In many cases we are fighting a supply chain shortage which is entirely controllable in the US. Similar happened...

Kevin Drum doesn’t believe Life is so bad. Kevin poses a number of reasons why things are actually pretty good. Think about it. We weathered a pandemic. For the first time government stepped in biggly and well beyond what was done in 2008 for people. Biden insured people who had no healthcare insurance pre-pandemic, provided subsidies for people while we stayed home, added additional subsidies for children, permanently expanded subsidies for...

Judge Merchan appears to be boxed in.  On the one hand, fining Trump $1,000 for violating the gag order is obviously not going to be effective.  On the other hand, sending Trump to jail would make him a martyr to some, and may not even be effective, since Trump would appeal any order sending him to the hoosegow.  What’s a trial judge to do? Well, one possibility is to ban Trump from Truth Social (or from social media generally).  Sure, Trump could...

Since many AB readers are either retired or about to be:“Looking solely at the trust fund that covers retirement and survivor benefits, Social Security will only be able to afford scheduled payments in full until 2033, roughly the same projection as last year. At that time, the fund’s reserves will be depleted, and continuing income will only cover 79% of benefits owed.”*snip*“As for Medicare, its hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part...