The Angry Bear

I live halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. Pretty much what you would call desert if you were new to the area like I am. Water is an issue as much of it comes from the Colorado river. The limits to draw water from the Colorado are still being determined or in a flux. The states are jockeying for more to insure growth. Nothing is stopping our small city from issuing more building permits. Irrigation efficiency for who? – The one-handed economist,...

Housing under construction increases back close to record; good economic news, but ammunition for a hawkish Fed  – by New Deal democrat Last month I wrote that “the Fed’s sledgehammer attempt via one of the most aggressive rate hike campaigns in its history appears to be on the verge of failure. That’s because housing construction, more than a year after the Fed started its campaign, is not meaningfully cooperating.” This month’s report did...

Big business organization in the form of the Chamber of Commerce and a Phamaceutical company are joining together and taking on the government to keep it from negotiating pharmaceutical pricing. Chances are well in favor of this ending up in SCOTUS based upon a moneyed corporation willing to spend its way into court. A resource Gideon Wainwright did not have. Those doors have mostly closed for citizens. And today, we have states lacking...

“From his very first term, Bush shocked many by reaching who had either been convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes during the Reagan and Bush administrations’ and others who many felt should have been indicted.“ “You have a very long list of people and what emerged through the two terms was that people who seemed to be accused of violating the law had a rapid accent in this administration.“ “Now, instead of investigating that, the congress...

The death of Daniel Ellsberg on Friday reminded me of his contribution to economics and his influence on my own thinking. In 1987, I was at Cornell, beginning an abortive PhD candidacy. In one of my courses there was an assigned reading on decision theory by Leonard Savage. One of the footnotes referred to an article by “Daniel Ellsberg” and I naturally wondered if it was the same Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. “Risk, Ambiguity and the...

Little doubt, economic policy will be one of the things experiencing the greatest change due to Global Warming (Climate Change). Always a construct, economic policies have, heretofore, in the main, been determined by the powerful. Seldom, if ever, have they been based on how it should be. If we are lucky, in the very near future, that determination will become a democratic one based on how should it be. If not, we haven’t a snowball’s chance in hell...

A comment on Juneteenth; and what I’ll be looking for in tomorrow’s housing report  – by New Deal democrat That Juneteenth is a national holiday ought to be a full rebuttal to those who think that teaching the entirety of American history, including its worst moments, is somehow an insult to the majority. That enslavement was finally ended by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment is something that all present-day Americans ought...

This is starting t0 become a bit confusing as Missouri and other states are suing Biden because Mohela is being harmed by student loan forgiveness. In order to sue, the state has to have standing and they do not as of yet unless SCOTUS finds a way to grant them standing. Twice previously, SCOTUS has swatted states for claiming standing (ACA and Native American Child Adoption) when they did not. Justice Amy Barrett has been challenging the states on...

As American Jews, at what point do we stop to assess the collateral damage that the coalescence of crippling student loan debt and the advancement of AI in all facets of the economy will have on America’s working and middle class? Student Loan Debt, AI and the Extinction of the American Middle Class, jewishjournal.com, Lisa Ansell As millions of student loan borrowers are forced back to repayment on September 1, the Biden Administration will...

Image of tractor and workers spraying is used courtesy of Getty Images. Originally published June 30, 1962, the book Silent Spring was banned initially. It was met with great resistance by many. Carson was advocating a more careful use of the pesticide. Instead, DDT was banned from any use. Globally, other countries followed suit. And the deaths from malaria increased again. Fortunately, more disciplined minds prevailed in the use of DDT....