The Angry Bear

The myth of markets How is it that a market created by Madison Avenue becomes prescient? Omniscient? It doesn’t. It isn’t; never was. Like capitalism, the primacy of private healthcare and the myth of markets are a big lie.The planet is dying from our burning of fossil fuels, yet we hear ‘news readers’ demand that alternative energy needs to be competitive with fossil fuels. Like hell, it does. Markets may, probably do, have a place in an economy,...

With sales near 25 year lows, the huge divergence between the existing and new home markets continues  – by New Deal democrat The drastic bifurcation between the new and existing home markets continues. Existing home sales fell to 4.04 million annualized in August, the lowest level of the entire past 10+ years except for last December and January. In fact, with the additional exception of a number of months during the great home bust during and...

Open Thread: NPs and PAs are Handling Increasingly More Primary Care Visits, Medscape, Avery Hurt “Healthcare Primary Care visits to NPs and PAs, also known as advanced practice providers, have been rising in recent years compared to doctor visits, according to the latest studies. The proportion of Medicare visits that NPs and PAs delivered nearly doubled in the 7-year period 2013-2019 (14% in 2013 to 26% in 2019), according to research published...

Restaurant fires back at NYT columnist after he complained about the cost of his meal: ‘Keep drinking buddy,’ Fox News, Gabriel Hays. When does a smoked burger by a reputable restaurant cost $78? When you add 4 drinks to the bill along with the $17 burger. No word on the tip left by New York Times columnist David Brooks. Bet it was not much. The “1911 Smoke House Barbeque” is now offering a special in Brooks’ honor:  More of the story . . ....

Hah got your attention there. The connection is Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr pionere of Cinematic nudity, Marine drone technology and the anti jamming anti interference technology on which WiFi is based. Notable for the first Hollywood full frontal nudity scene and the concept of an un jammable, uninterceptable, radio controlled torpedo. Lamarr was born in Austria and married a guy who owned a company which made torpedoes. Post WWI when...

Based on a recent article in New York Review of Books, I read the novel “Independent People” by the Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness. The book was originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935. Laxness won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1955, in part on the strength of this book. Like Moby-Dick, I approached this novel as an obligation. I put it down once, after a few pages, in exasperation with its rambling faux-Norse folklore beginnings,...

Have to ask the question as to whether these early showings are predictors of what is to come in 2024 election. I do not recall this type of election wins in 2016. In any case, if Dems win big, it will be another stolen election! Last night, people voted in elections in two different states. “Those results tell us way more about the state of our democracy and the political strength of the pro-democracy forces in this country than all of today’s...

It is agreed that freedom of speech does not imply freedom to make whatever performative utterance one chooses. It just isn’t agreed what “performative” means. Some (of whom you are the first I ever heard do so ever in my life) use it in this sense. The usage condemnation is performative when, for example a judge condemns one to death – the sequelae are nonverbal and very direct (much more so before the current practice of 7 years or so if...

Initial jobless claims: unresolved seasonality obscures cautionary YoY comparisons  – by New Deal democrat For the last few weeks, I have been highlighting that there is likely some unresolved post-pandemic seasonality in the initial claims numbers. That certainly looked like the case this week, as a sharp decline mirrored a similar sharp decline 52 weeks ago. To wit: initial claims declined -20,000 to 201,000, the lowest number since...

Siri: “Hey Jill, how are you? Anything you would like to talk about?”Jill: “I fell while hiking today.”Siri: “Were you hurt?”Jill: “Left ankle is somewhat swollen and sore from jamming the foot into a rock while trying to stay upright.”Siri: “Sorry to hear that, Jill. Any idea why you fell?”Jill: “I don’t know, just fell.”Siri: “Did you feel dizzy?”Jill: “No.”Siri: “Did you trip?”Jill: “I guess so.”Siri: “Why do you think that, Jill?”Jill: “I think...