The Angry Bear

What I like about this Issue-Brief is the use of terminology we see, not knowing what it means, and seeing a description or definition. I have added links so as to do a deeper dive into the terminology. Carefully read, a person can garner an understanding of initial drug costs, intermediate costs, discounts, and what pricing results to the consumer. It is not pretty and reflects much pricing rent-taking over the last two or so years, blaming...

Joseph Stiglitz is calling for an honest and open debate on the debt ceiling and future expenditures and whether there is any relationship between the two. He states the expansion of the debt ceiling has no relationship between it and laws having future expenditures. The debt ceiling has no bearing on legal expenditures. It is about raising the debt ceiling to meet the expenditure congressional acts. Mostly a Stiglitz Opinion piece with some...

Housing update: sales have bottomed, prices in process  – by New Deal democrat No important economic news today. Yesterday existing home sales were released, but their economic impact isn’t all that important, except as it can confirm what has been happening with new houses under construction. And confirmation is what it gave us. First, *sales* of houses have bottomed, following the peak in mortgage rates over 7% at the end of last October....

As of today, Trump seems well-positioned to win the Republican nomination.  The basic dynamic is familiar from 2016 – Trump has a strong base of committed supporters, the opposition will likely be divided, and many Republican primaries are winner-take-all or winner-take-most.  Couple this with the bump in support Trump got after his indictment in NY, the apparent missteps and general unlikeability of his chief rival DeSantis, and the fact that Trump...

Jobless claims: yellow caution flag persists  – by New Deal democrat In response to last week’s big jump in new jobless claims to 264,000, I wrote that it might be an outlier vs. the beginning of a rising trend. This morning claims fell back to their previous average range, at 242,000. The 4 week average declined -1,000 to 244,250, while continuing claims from the previous week declined -8,000 to 1.799 million: I’ve been paying particular...

Democracy Alerts – Democrats Reintroduce Bill to Expand U.S. Supreme Court – Democracy Docket, I am certain this bill will not pass in the House. In any case, it puts SCOTUS on alert as to their politics. I would like to see Congress develop a code of ethics for SCOTUS which might go further than stacking the court with more justices. Ethical behavior on the part of justices plays into how they rule in some instances. It is all in appearances....

Why hasn’t he been here? It was maybe a decade ago when I was working for Stone Ridge, an automotive company. I was in Boston visiting a plant and picking up on their purchasing of connectors I was also cost modeling those connectors. While there, I took an evening to meet Dan Crawford for the first time at a bar which had outside tables. I know we were sampling the beer and maybe we grabbed a burger, I was new to Angry Bear and Dan gave me a...

A Fed nightmare? Housing permits and starts confirm improvement from bottom, multi-unit construction sets new record high  – by New Deal democrat Housing construction is perhaps the single most important method by which the Fed seeks to translate its interest rate policy into effects on the economy.  To be blunt, the Fed’s sledgehammer attempt via one of the most aggressive rate hike campaigns in its history appears to be on the verge of...

This is an interesting commentary by David Zipper in his talk with Henry Grabar. Henry is the author of “How Parking Explains the World.” The AB title is from two questions. David was asking Henry to explain. If you have lived in or near a large city like Chicago, you are always on the hunt for a parking space unless there is a commercial garage around. If you are living in the suburbs and have to go into the city, parking is expensive. I now...

March total business sales strongly suggest that real total sales have entered a downturn  – by New Deal democrat Today’s final significant economic report was total business sales for March. This is a nominal figure; the “real” number won’t be updated until personal income and spending is reported for April in two weeks. And here, the report was a clear negative. Not only did total March sales decline -1.1%, but January was revised down by...