The Angry Bear

Consumer Price Index – March 2024 (bls.gov) “The BLS index for shelter rose in March, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexescontributed over half of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1percent over the month. The food index rose 0.1 percent in March. The food at home index wasunchanged, while the food away from home index rose 0.3 percent over the month. Good reads on the March BLS...

by Dean Baker Center for Economic and Policy Research The inflation hawks took March’s CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet. There is no doubt that it was a disappointing report for those hoping we could put the pandemic inflation behind us. However, there still is not much basis for thinking the Fed needs to get out the nukes and start shooting big-time. The key point to remember is this inflation continues to be...

My former chairman used to tell the story of when he was a resident on rounds in the 1950s, he would hear a pounding sound in some of the patient rooms. When he looked in to discover the source, it was a nurse pounding the back of a patient who was stretched across the bed with his/her head hanging over the edge. The nurse was trying to dislodge the mucus in the lungs of the patients, who had cystic fibrosis. While cystic fibrosis is a multisystem...

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog [NOTE: After traveling all day yesterday, I decided to put off any comments on the CPI upside surprise until later today. Short version is that shelter continues its slow decent, gasoline picked up, and services are accelerating as one might expect in a strong economy with the supply chain tailwind having dissipated.] Initial claims continued to be rangebound this week, declining -11,000 to 211,000....

More semiconductor news. Leading off, TSMC plant delays in Arizona are disappearing. In spite of earlier delays, the Arizona TSMC plant is now expected to be operational by end of 2024. Pilot Production to prove the manufacturing process will start mid-April 2024. Three months earlier, TSMC announced further delays at its $40 billion Arizona fab. TSMC has now said the plant is expected to be operating at full capacity by the end of 2024. What...

Biden is at it again. This time with Intel in AZ. With all the issues with passing a budget since earlier last year, I wonder how Biden and the Dems got this out of Congress. Must be some pretty good pork involved with these programs to get approvals. Companies are kicking in $240 billion in investments to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States since the President took office. Good move by Dems in a swing state. If you...

If You Choose Not to Decide, You May be an American Restating the premise of my earlier post: Voting is an affirmative action. The more difficult voting is, the more turnout will be reduced. A voter in Oregon needs only to fill out and mail a ballot at any point over a period of time before an election. By contrast, some states allow voting only during certain hours on Election Day. Others may add a set of proscribed days and times before then,...

Arizona is a state which does not stand on its own for protecting the rights of its citizens. In this case, we speak of a woman’s right to determine what is right for her individual self and body. The Supreme Court revived a near-total abortion ban with its support of a 160-year-old law. The law provides no exceptions for rape or incest. And, in its 4-2 opinion, the conservative majority wrote: “Physicians are now on notice that all...

by Ron Coddington Life on the Civil War Research Trail A presentation requested by Dale Coberly about what could have happened if Virginia had followed suit in freeing the slaves pre-Civil War. A Slavery debate in the 1830s. ~~~~~~~~ In his 1910 memoirs, Randolph Harrison McKim, a Confederate officer who served on the staffs of Stonewall Jackson and George H. Steuart, recalled stopping by the home of Thomas Jefferson Randolph on a January...

by Zach Beauchamp Vox via RSN.Org. As presented by Dale Coberly . . . A conversation between Vox’s Zach Beauchamp and Joe Conason a veteran New York journalist. The topic? Trump’s grifting. A new book shows how conservative grift started long before branded bibles and $400 sneakers. During his time atop the Republican Party, Trump’s lifetime habits of fraud and  grifting have fused seamlessly with conservative politics. In 2024 alone,...