The Angry Bear

Review: The World without Us by The one-handed economist one-handed-economist.com I just read this 2007 book by Alan Weisman, and it’s encouraging — not because it gives me any hope for humans but for the Earth. Weisman goes on a tour of human impact (and destruction), looking at one problem (plastics, pollution, biodiversity, etc.) or place (the oceans or cities) at a time. The book is packed with facts and useful context. Here are a...

Bit of an Introduction ; The above chart shows the extent of the consolidation of PBMs which also portays the growing lack of competition. The chart comes from the Oklahoma petition filed in the Cleveland County District Court. Cleveland County is the fifth fastest-growing county, encompassing vibrant communities such as the southern part of Oklahoma City, Moore, Norman, Noble, Lexington, Slaughterville, Little Axe, as...

I am confident many of our moms had Tupperware in the house. High density molded soft plastic which could withstand cold temperature and some degree of heat coming from hot water. Came with lids which could seal food within the container and also burp them to release some air and create a tighter seal. A staple within our household and also my mothers’. The only issue was probably cost. There were opportunities to hold parties where women would...

 – by New Deal democrat There are some economic and financial indicators that aren’t classic leading or lagging indicators. Rather, they are “over-sensitive” in one direction or another. Two good examples are heavy truck sales and the unemployment rate: they are over-sensitive to the downside: they lead going in to recessions, but lag coming out. The S&P 500 stock market index fits in this category as well. The classic aphorism is “the...

September 19, 2024 Letters from an American “Democracy depends on at least two healthy political parties that can compete for voters on a level playing field. Although the men who wrote the Constitution hated the idea of political parties, they quickly figured out the party’s tie voters to the mechanics of Congress and the presidency.” Only one such party exists. Yesterday morning, NPR reported that U.S. public health data are showing a...

Purity is impossible, and half measures feel better than nothing but also are a failure. This is in regard to Microplastics which are next to impossible to avoid. And it’s all expensive. If a family is expecting a baby and wants, reasonably, to buy plastic-free baby products. Given everything humanity is learning about the possible impact of plastic on fetal and child development, they would have to be relatively rich to avoid plastics. The Cost...

These guys are ahead of us. What Scared Ford’s CEO in China, WSJ Jim Farley had just returned from China. What the Ford Motor chief executive found during the May visit made him anxious: The local automakers were pulling away in the electric-vehicle race.  In an early-morning call with fellow board member John Thornton, an exasperated Farley unloaded.  The Chinese carmakers are moving at light speed, he told Thornton, a former Goldman...

 – by New Deal democrat You may recall that last week I wrote that beginning this week and for the next 6+ months, initial claims would be up against some very tough comparisons from 2023 and would be the ultimate true test of whether there has been unresolved post-pandemic seasonality in the numbers. Well, this week’s numbers suggest the unresolved seasonality hypothesis is still with us, but with considerable ambiguity. Initial claims did...

 – by New Deal democrat You may recall that last week I wrote that beginning this week and for the next 6+ months, initial claims would be up against some very tough comparisons from 2023 and would be the ultimate true test of whether there has been unresolved post-pandemic seasonality in the numbers. Well, this week’s numbers suggest the unresolved seasonality hypothesis is still with us, but with considerable ambiguity. Initial claims did...

Endless online vitriol has been spilt promoting the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was somehow either (a) an engineered pathogen or (b) a virus that escaped from a research facility. While those allegations served the interests of the Trump Administration, the actual, you know, scientific data supporting them was non-existant.Now, years later, the sorts of experiments that could have weighed in support of natural origins of the pandemic, the...