The Angry Bear

Kip Sullivan has been comparing Fee for Service Medicare to Medicare Advantage and Commercial Healthcare Insurance at length calling out the failures of the latter. The results of such comparisons show FFS Medicare is far less costly in providing similar and better healthcare. Expanding Medicare to include all constituents as it is or in a Single Payer format would lower costs and provide better healthcare to all constituents. The “if” here is...

This is a brief and targeted commentary by EPI’s Josh Bivens to which I have added input. The Fed has been flailing away at the economy in the belief Labor is the issue. Josh contends, product or profit markups have been a major issue. He does provide a foundation for his posit. I look to the supply chain issue(s) as the basis for the higher profits. I experienced similar in getting componentry in 2008-2010. With less supply and a lengthen (and...

The civilized American peoples were here long before the colonists arrived from other countries. This is the story of some discovering their past in what was called America after the arrival of the new people. Researchers reveal U’s painful past with Minnesota’s Indigenous people, MPR News, Dan Kraker and Melissa Olson. A massive new report details the University of Minnesota’s long history of mistreating the state’s Native people and lays out...

Properly measured, consumer inflation is only about 3.0% YoY, and the economy has experience Deflation since last June  – by New Deal democrat One month ago, I “officially” took the position that inflation had been conquered, and that, properly measured, the economy had actually been experiencing deflation since last June. This morning’s report only confirmed that position. The primary reason, as I have been pounding on for almost 18 months,...

This post is more of a copy and paste. If you read the sections and then the original piece, you will see I have changed some of the wording to accommodate the post itself. For example, the charts appear to the right of the wording rather than above. For the longest time, I could not find graphs breaking out the numbers of deaths due to opioids until I happened upon the Senate’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) report. This report by the NIDA...

And undermine public health in the process I ran across Merrill at the Washington Monthly writing about Healthcare. This particular article is on the mark in terms of what is occurring in pharmaceutical healthcare today. Kip, Merrill, and I are all hitting similar notes with regard to healthcare and other issues impacting it. Some such as Kip and Merrill more so on the details than I. The costs and prices of Pharma are overstated by the industry....

AAR: March Rail Carloads and Intermodal Decreased Year-over-year by Calculated Risk on 4/07/2023 03:25:00 PM From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Rail Time Indicators. Graphs and excerpts reprinted with permission by AAR to Bill McBride. Rail volumes today are being negatively influenced by broader economic trends, including slowdowns in industrial output, high inventory levels at many retailers, lower port activity, and...

Scenes from the March employment report 2: unemployment recession indicators  – by New Deal democrat A reminder: I may be offline for the next couple of days. In the meantime, yesterday I looked at the 5 leading indicators contained in the employment report, and summarized how they either signal recession now or within the next 3 to 6 months. Today I want to focus on unemployment and underemployment. Economist Gloria Sahm’s Rule, namely...

Editorial by Ten Bears at Homeless on the High Desert. Ten Bears is reviewing the politics or the changing of the rules in Montana for the 2024 Senatorial Election. And changing the rules only for 2024. Sounds almost like Wisconsin plans to impeach a newly elect Supreme Cour Justice. They Can Only “Win” by Cheating . . . , Homeless on the High Desert, Ten Bears, g’da says . . . Daily Chaos: Republicans in the Montana state Senate on Tuesday...

Not sure where these critters come from; but, it sure is tiring. One person lacking the foundation for making such a decision is allowed to make the decision only because of his status. If he has a legal background (???), he knows he is wrong So much for “leave it up to the states:” Right-wing activist w/no medical training overrules FDA, bans mifepristone nationally, ACA Signups, Charles Gaba. Charles: I was out of town for much of last week...