The Angry Bear

In 2020, I was a subject in the Moderna phase III trial for their COVID mRNA vaccine. At the same time, Pfizer-BioNTec trialed a similar mRNA vaccine. Both mRNA vaccines proved highly successful. In both cases, chemically modified mRNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is injected, programming cells that receive the mRNA to produce and secrete spike protein until the mRNA decays.Now, a innovative self-amplifying mRNA vaccine has been approved in...

In sum, this month’s report was very much consistent with a “soft landing” scenario, which must be regarded as the default outcome at this point. Read-on for the details . . . – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog In the past few months, my focus has been on whether jobs gains are most consistent with a “soft landing,” i.e., no further deterioration, or whether deceleration is ongoing; and more specifically:  Whether there is further...

It’s more environmentally harmful to make an electric car than a gas car. “A guide to electric car misinformation (part 2),” HEATED. Tags: Electric Cars

by Kip Sullivan JD This is a long one covering managed care and value-based care healthcare in Minnesota. The topic being why it hasn’t worked. It is worth the read. Angry Bear has covered Kip’s message on healthcare in an effort to show why healthcare costs are out of control. “The commission recommends the new state program control health care costs through managed-care organizations, such as HMOs and PPOs, the types of health plans that...

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog Initial claims in the last week rose 9,000 to 221,000, while the four week moving average increased 2,750 to 214,250. With the usual one week lag, continuing claims declined 19,000 to 1.791 million: On the more important YoY% basis for forecasting purposes, initial claims are up 2.3%, while the four week average is down -4.5%. Continuing claims are still up, by 5.1%: The important takeaways...

by Steve Hutkins Save the Post Office AB: I have been involved in multiple, many, etc. systems implementations over the years. They need careful upfront planning with users to understand what may work best and have a foundation in mind before you move forward with an implementation. PG Louis DeJoy has never worked in a post office and lacks a foundation to support his belief the plan “he” is implementing will work. Furthermore, he has not...

Kevin Drum has a timely post on grocery inflation. Overall, it’s at 1% now.“Why do so many people still think inflation is high? It’s because they don’t respond to averages. They respond to outliers.”*snip*“Frozen juice is up 27%. Baby food is up 9%. Ground beef is up 6%. When you shop for groceries, these things are going to stand out.“Now, it’s also true that eggs are down 17%. Apples are down 10%. Fruits, vegetables, chicken, and dozens of other...

There has always been a lot of misinformation and frank dishonesty surrounding Social Security. Here are three things that Social Security isn’t:1. A retirement investment. Social Security is insurance. It is not meant to be your sole source of income after retirement (although for many Americans, it basically is). Social Security is not a substitute for a pension or 401k, or for personal savings. But if some calamity befalls you and you lose your...

 – by New Deal democrat “it should be no surprise that Biden’s poll numbers have recently improved.” No big economic news today, so let me update a correlation with information from last Friday’s personal income data. To wit, is consumer sentiment about the economy tied to any real metric? With a lot of noise, it does appear to be correlated. The University of Michigan has been measuring consumer sentiment for over half a century. The last...

When I was in college, I took up pipe smoking. I particularly enjoyed Turkish Latakia tobacco, smoked through a long-stemmed church warden clay pipe. But shortly after I got married, my wife told me to stop.Smoking is a particularly dangerous nicotine delivery system. Nowadays, there is vaping, which some see as safer. It may well be, but “safer” isn’t the same as “safe.”“People who self-reported ever having used electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes)...