The Angry Bear

Interesting national reports as detailed in Letters from an American. At least, I find them interestingto be redundant. Multiple topics passing in review. June 22, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Something Amazing for Drivers “To rebuild I-95 on time, we need 12 hours of dry weather to complete the paving and striping process,” Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor Josh Shapiro tweeted. “With rain in the forecast,...

About the time I was talking to USC’s Associate Director and Alan Collinge at the Student Loan Justice Facebook site, Michael “The Guardian” reporter was talking to students there about payback issues. Everyone is concerned about the startup of loan paybacks. It is a serious issue for most. ‘There’s no way I can pay it’: Americans dread restart of student loan payments, US student debt | The Guardian, Michael Sainato Many Americans are dreading...

Back to the basics: how do initial claims, total hours worked, aggregate real payrolls, and job growth relate?  – by New Deal democrat One of the most important reasons why big Fed rate hikes and big downturns in things like housing starts and credit provision haven’t translated into a recession this year (so far!) is the big decline in gas prices in the second half of last year. This big decline has translated into income and spending gains...

What is being offered up by 3M, etc. (NYT article below) is a pittance of what will be necessary to clean up lakes, wetlands associated with the lakes, rivers, and streams. I lived in Michigan. The reported contamination from PFAS, etc. there is massive and then there is a potential Lake Erie cleanup, the Niagara River, and into Lake Ontario. You can fish in Michigan lakes, etc. but they are advising not to eat the fish. Also areas near air force...

Arizona Opinion: There are lies, and there is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, tucson.com, Lisa Ansell and Christina Winton. USC Associate Director Lisa Ansell discusses the predicament Christina Winton is in with Loan forgiveness applied for after 10-years in public service and the foot dragging by the PSLF program to cancel her student loans. And then there is loan repayment scheduled to start again September 1 of this year....

Initial claims: yellow caution flag turns more orange  – by New Deal democrat Initial claims, which were one of the most positive indicators of all last year, have turned darker in the last several months, and are edging closer to triggering their recession warning levels. Claims were unchanged at a revised 264,000 last week, the highest level in over 18 months. The more important 4 week average rose 8,500 to 255,750. Continuing claims, with...

This commentary is along the lines of what I have been taught when I was consulting with Ingersoll Engineers in Rockford and which is now extinct. My background includes manufacturing planning at all levels domestically and internationally for US and foreign companies. Labor’s wages are a small part of the Cost of Manufacturing, etc. Spencer England and I went round and round on this topic. Manufacturing, Inventory and Throughput planning was my...

Much like Kip Sullivan in Minnesota/PNHP who Angry Bear has featured, Kay Tillow of Kentucky is a Single Payer activist. You will find Kip saying similar things about Medicare Advantage, etc. And we are all a little bit different attempting to reach the same goals . . . preventing the privatization of Medicare and achieving Single Payer. Kay’s article appeared on Common Dreams. I have added some things to her article and emphasized some points I...

Real wage growth leads spending; meaning spending seems likely to stall after an increase over the next few months  – by New Deal democrat No big economic news today, so I wanted to pick up on a subject I began a week ago Monday; namely, taking a detailed look at personal spending, i.e., consumption. To put it in more socially relevant terms, what allows average American households to spend more, or to cut back? And what are its ramifications...

Freya’sday Five Elements … I caught up with Reich’s Substack Commentary by Robert Reich on Homeless on the Desert. June 16, 2023 in g’da said New to the blogroll lineup, from Robert Reich’s Substack and the Smirking Chimp The Washington Post calls Trump’s vision for a second term “authoritarian.” That vision includes mandatory stop-and-frisk. Deploying the military to fight street crime, break up gangs, and deport immigrants. Purging the...