The Angry Bear

Higher new home sales, with lower prices in May: good!  – by New Deal democrat Let me start with my usual caveat about new home sales: while they are the most leading of all housing metrics, they are very noisy and heavily revised. With that out of the way, the bottom line is that they offered pretty definitive evidence that sales have bottomed, while prices are still declining, at least on a YoY basis. Which makes sense, because as I always...

Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. How should policymakers respond? Economic Policy Institute, Josh Bivens The inflation spike of 2021 and 2022 has presented real policy challenges. In order to better understand this policy debate, it is imperative to look at prices and how they are being affected. The price of just about everything in the U.S. economy can be broken down into the three main components of...

Important Cases to be decided by SCOTUS. Affirmative Action, Student Loans, Gay Rights, Religious Rights, and some Voting (still remains). Some important issues left which will either please or displease many people. Open Thread June 24, 2023 SCOTUS and Standing, Angry Bear, Angry Bear Blog Tags: affirmative action, Gay Rights, Students, voting...

340B: The Unintentional Hospital and Pharmacy Profit Stream That Was Supposed to Help Patients, PHrma.Org. What is 340B or Section 340B? As explained by the American Hospital Association, Section 340B of the Public Health Service Act requires pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell outpatient drugs at discounted prices to health care organizations. Those are the organizations caring for many uninsured and low-income...

House prices increase for third straight month, but Case Shiller index now negative YoY  – by New Deal democrat Seasonally adjusted house prices through April as measured by both the FHFA (red in the graph below) and Case Shiller (blue) Indexes rose, the former by 0.7% and the latter by 0.5%. This is the third straight increase in a row. Thus house prices have probably bottomed. But on a YoY basis, prices have continued to decelerate sharply,...

This is not a bad idea. It is one issue long over due and needed if we are to attract more people into the Labor Force. It should be government sponsored to cut the costs of it. To Increase the Supply of Workers, Our Economy Needs Childcare, Roosevelt Institute, Mike Konczal Tuesday February 23, the Department of Commerce announced the CHIPS for America Funding Opportunity. This action is a part of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act designed...

Yeah, I left one part of the title out . . . “Job Loss.” I do not believe there will be any. If there is it will probably be minimal and there will be other jobs we can go too. I believe in the ability of people to think there way out of things, making decisions on the spot, and based upon the knowledge they have while adapting to a changing environment. Believe it or not, that is much of supply chain. Dean Baker says the same. Only for different...

As you may recall, Angry Bear has discussed Medicaid purges, why they are happening, and who are impacted by disenrollment. You can find our commentaries here, here, and here. Most recently . . . Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker, KFF, June 20, 2023 At least 1,514,000 Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled as of June 22, 2023, based on the most current data from 25 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, 37% of people with a...

This recent article on NPR was passed on to me after a recent conversation with Steve Early who along with Suzanne Gordon write articles on veteran’s affairs. Usually and in this instance, NPR is careful who or what they support. However, you still have to read things carefully. Steve in conjunction with Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven recently released their book “Our Veterans.” I post on the bool most recently. The book “critically examines the...

This is an interesting occurrence. On its own Minnesota is moving forth with a health care study to be completed by March 2024. The study topic is the implementation of single payer within the state and its impact on administrative costs. This year the state began questioning its present commitment to traditional healthcare’s and its administrative role in healthcare. Kip on numerous occasions has pointed out the costs of administrative costs of...