The Angry Bear

Little Good can Come from Private Equity in the Healthcare Industry, Angry Bear Two Years ago As if we did not have enough issues with the commercial healthcare insurance industry attempting to supplant single payer Medicare (minus setting hospital budgets, doctor fees, and pharmaceutical costs to the consumer) and the VA with commercial healthcare insurance and/or Medicare Advantage and ACOs? Commercial Healthcare Insurance and Medicare...

Much of this article I rewrote to make it clearer for the reader. It is written by upper management. I do disagree with the conclusions. Throwing more money at healthcare is not going to solve the issues he discusses. The article praises Commercial Healthcare Insurance who pay more for patient care and whose costs are twice Medicare of which much is administrative cost. The issue is not Medicare or Medicare. The issue is the cost of the...

Income tax withholding payments stumble again  – by New Deal democrat The important data this week will include new home sales tomorrow, Q1 GDP and initial jobless claims on Thursday, and most importantly of all (imo) real personal income and spending, along with real manufacturing and trade sales on Friday. In the meantime, today let me take another look at a significant coincident indicator, income tax withholding payments, because the...

Open Thread April 20, 2023, Angry Bear angrybearblog.com Tags: open thread

The last dissent of Thurgood Marshall: the Rule of Law vs. the transitory Edicts of 5-4 Court majorities  – by New Deal democrat Daniel Kiel at the TPM Cafe, on the supreme differences between Clarence Thomas and his predecessor, Thurgood Marshall, writes: “Thurgood Marshall, … in his final opinion before retiring after a quarter century on the court, [ ]warned that his fellow justices’ growing appetite to revisit – and reverse – prior...

EVs and S&DCs: USPS says you can’t have one without the other, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins The Postal Service is using the very popular plan to buy electric vehicles (EVs) to justify its very unpopular plan to relocate carriers to Sorting & Delivery Centers (S&DCs). In press releases, news articles, and presentations to business mailers, the two plans are being yoked together, as if you can’t have one without the other....

How the 19th-Century “Know Nothing” Party Reshaped American Politics, Smithsonian Magazine, Lorraine Boissoneault. Over 150 years ago, the Know-Nothings started their drive to change the country and lead it in a different direction to a probable takeover. I see similarities in tactics and direction to what is happening with the No Labels. Their appeal is very apparent and the use of the public to achieve the objectives is clear. A bit of history...

Gooz News is another substack I have taken to reading. Like “Letters from an American,” it too is well written. Except Gooz News concentrates on healthcare a topic which I have interest in talking about. Being poor results in being exposed to many factors all of which impact your life and that of your family. As Merrill Gooz points out, the nation is wealthy and could easily remove much of the impact of poverty on the health of those who can not...

The History of Earth Day, treehugger.com, Jenn Savedege. The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. The event and which some consider to be the birth of the environmental movement. Founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson. Nelson chose the April date to coincide with spring while avoiding most spring break and final exams. Politics Iowa Senate Pulls All-Nighter to Roll Back Child Labor Protections, vice.com, Julia Roscoe. The...

Weekly Indicators for April 17 – 21 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. There’s more *extremely* slow deterioration in some coincident indicators of recession, but at the same time, the downturn has been telegraphed for so long that some leading indicators are on the verge of turning bullish again. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment on all of...