The Angry Bear

I was asked by commenter Fred if I would give an update on the US Postal Service. It had been a month so it makes sense to do so. With the centralization of mail pickup by carriers it was said post offices would close as the sorting and bundling would be elsewhere. The Topeka Post Office is the first post office to close as its mail carriers will be picking up mail at the new Sorting & Delivery Center. It will be interesting to see how this...

Has trade for materials, components, and product shifted away from China to be used in the U.S.? Maybe, maybe not, and maybe later. If you are going to manufacture in the US, you have to have the capability. It make take a bit to get up and ready. If we are buying product, etc. from Vietnam and Mexico, I would be planning a trip to each plant to see what the capabilities are. This is standard sourcing procedure. What is the capacity, conditions of...

August 26, 2023, Letters from an American, Professor Heather Cox-Richardson On this date in 1920, the U.S. Secretary of State received the official notification from the governor of Tennessee that his state had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the amendment, and the last one necessary to make the amendment the law of the land once the secretary of state certified it. He did that as soon...

This is brief commentary is pulled from several sources. It is meant to be an observation. In “Union Booms and Busts,” a new book by the authors Judith Stepan-Norris, Jasmine Kerrissey, a review is taken of the shifting fortunes of U.S. labor, their unions, and of employers and their organizations. This is not meant to be a review of the book; but, I am giving credit to where I am taking the information besides other sites mentioned. It is...

Weekly Indicators for August 21 – 25 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat While I was away on vacation, the high frequency data continued to pour in. And so my Weekly Indicators post for the week is up at Seeking Alpha. There continue to be some very negative signs associated with interest rates, including important things like both purchase and refinancing mortgage applications, both of which are at or near 30 year lows. Not a good sign...

These days, microplastics seem to have displaced methane and carbon dioxide as the environmental bogy man. And not that we shouldn’t worry about all pollution sources, but it turns out that, once again, driving is a big problem–not just for global warming but for microplastics as well:“Driving is not just an air pollution and climate change problem — turns out, it just might be the largest contributor of microplastics in California coastal...

Passing along information on Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, one year out, and the impact on the US. Update on CMS implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act on its 1st anniversary, ACA Signups, Charles Gaba via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (note: this press release actually came out on August 16th): The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was signed into law on August 16, 2022. The new law provides meaningful...

This is interesting stuff. Big, loud, and gas guzzlers. Licensing them according to such could go a long when in shutting down the purchase of them. Many of these trucks are platforms to conduct business out of them. No licenses for such. Neither do hey have the business name, phone number, and name. Technology for the pick-me-up trucks they have added an 1800-2000 pound battery. The pickup trucks are up around 10,000 pounds. Spent much time...

California Democrat State Senator Scott Wiener’s (SB770) wants to talk more about single payer which some dispute as even being single payer. Health Care 4 Us (Democrats) join with union nurses in California who champion AB 1690. SB 770, establishes a “working group” to advise the Governor in informal conversations with the federal government about waivers to capture federal funds for a unified financing health care system. The fear being the talking...

While I don’t find this surprising, it underscores the power of modern pharmacology. Many drugs deliver only incremental improvement, but semaglutide–like anti-hypertensives and statins–looks transformative for many people.“The diabetes and weight loss drug semaglutide significantly reduced symptoms and improved quality of life in people with obesity and the most common form of heart failure in a clinical trial, potentially expanding the already...