The Angry Bear

The WSJ reports that President Biden is delaying his decision on student loan forgiveness: President Biden is likely to decide later this summer whether to partially forgive student-loan debt for millions of borrowers, according to administration officials and others familiar with the matter, after the president said more than a month ago that he would weigh in on the issue in the next couple of weeks.The officials said Mr. Biden is likely to...

What has become known as Assault Style Weapons: Justice Scalia wrote in 2008 in District of Colombia v. Heller; the right to own a gun is “not unlimited.” For that reason, the Supreme Court held that state and federal authorities can bar firearms from schools and public buildings, while the people remain free to prohibit what Scalia called “dangerous and unusual weapons.” Private Citizens are not Militias: Adrian Fontes is a Democratic...

Coronavirus dashboard for June 6: transitioning ever so gradually into a less fatal endemic condition The economic calendar is very light this week, with no significant news until Thursday, so let’s take this opportunity to update the situation with COVID-19. First, as of one week ago subvariant BA.2.12.1 continues to increase very slowly its share of overall cases, up to 59% nationwide: (Dan here…graphs can be enlarged at Bonddad blog…click...

RJS: Focus on Fracking Summary: US oil supplies at a 17 ½ year low with SPR at a 34½ year low; gasoline exports at a 3½ year high; 4 weeks of total oil + product exports at a record high and leads to total oil + products supply at a 13½ year low total oil + product  supplies at a 13½ year low after record exports.. The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the...

According to Charleston, VA Police; Instead of running from the threat, an armed woman engaging a shooter probably saved several lives the other night, Police: Woman killed man who fired rifle into party crowd in West Virginia, (msn.com) “CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A woman in West Virginia fatally shot a man who began firing an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd of people that had gathered for a party, authorities said. Dennis Butler, 37, was...

Biden Kowtows To Saudi Arabia  Apparently, President Biden will be visiting Riyadh as part of his forthcoming Middle East tour. The report on this coincides with an apparent end to negative comments about the nation’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), whom the CIA has accused of having ordered the execution and chopping up of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It must be admitted that MbS has made some progressive moves, allowing women to drive and...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for May 30 – June 3 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The slow drip, drip, drip of decelerating or declining data is continuing, as among other things, the YoY increase in withholding tax payments from workers has declined significantly in the past month. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment in what is happening in the economy,...

May jobs report: Like the past few months, I was most interested in three main issues: 1. Is the pace of job growth decelerating?  (Yes, but it is still very strong by historical standards) 2. Is wage growth holding up? Is it accelerating? (It is still strong, but decelerated again slightly) 3. Are the leading indicators in the report beginning to flag? (Not yet) We still have 822,000 jobs, or 0.5% of the total to go to equal the...

After all this time, and even with the benefit of history, the causes of World War One (WWI) are still a matter of discussion amongst scholars. For scholars living then to have understood what the causes were, they would have needed to have known an awful lot about all that was going on at the time; which would have been difficult. They would also have needed to cross the philosophical Rubicon and not have allowed long-held beliefs and norms to...