The Angry Bear

Tax Deal Open Thread Theater, Angry Bear, angry bear blog Open Threads can be done weekly if needed. Don’t clutter up posts. I am not the cleaning lady for off topic comments. Every Star Trek Ship For Captain Data After Picard Season 3, screenrant.com. Intriguing series or movie. Data as a Star Ship captain. Especially now with the advent of AI computer beings. ...

Weekly Indicators for May 29 – June 2 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Much like yesterday’s employment report, which showed a deep bifurcation between the Establishment and Household Surveys, the economy as a whole is also showing a deep bifurcation between elements well into recessionary territory, and elements showing strong growth. Together they net out to drifting sideways at a...

The following definitions I found in the article “What Kaiser’s Acquisition of Geisinger Means For Us All,” Forbes, Robert Pearl M.D. May 31, 2023 There are a couple of terms within the article which I would like to point out. Fee For Service and Fee For Value. For clarity, Traditional Medicare uses Fee For Service methodology and Medicare Advantage uses Fee For Value methodology. The following paragraphs were pulled from the Forbes article...

Dueling May jobs reports: establishment report strong, household report pre-recessionary  – by New Deal democrat My focus for this report continued to be whether the leading sectors and other indicators  continued to decline, and whether the pace of growth continued to decelerate. The establishment side of the report was strong, with most leading indicators improving. But the household side was not just weak, it was negative, with an...

The private banking industry either can’t or won’t do what needs to be done to stop preying on vulnerable people. The Post Office Can Bring People-Centered Public Banking to Every ZIP Code, Inequality.org, Anni Norman, Aditi Sen, May 2023. The need for a public banking option is urgent. Nearly 10 million households, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color, are unbanked in the United States. Unbanked or underbanked households...

Intensified decline in manufacturing, but another sign of a bottom in residential construction  – by New Deal democrat As usual, we start the month with reports on last month’s manufacturing, and construction from two months ago. The ISM manufacturing index has a 75 year record of being a very reliable leading indicator. According to the ISM, readings below 48 are consistent with an oncoming recession. And there, the news is not good. Not...

I took this article and broke it into different parts. If it does not make sense, blame me and not the Insider author. This is a different topic but along the lines of student loans which Alan Collinge of Student Loan Justice has been fighting. Republicans support these companies. Democrats are pushing back. Fomer students are holding the five and six digit debt. And no one has fixed the damn problem allowing OPMs to do this. DeJa’Vu just like the...

New and improved initial claims! Now including comparison to Sahm Rule  – by New Deal democrat I’m making an important addition to my weekly blurb on jobless claims this week: I’m showing how it compares with and leads the Sahm Rule. Just in case you’re not familiar with the Sahm Rule, it is a rule of thumb started by economist Claudia Sahm, stating that the economy is in a recession when the 3 month average of the unemployment rate rises...

There are many things which could be cut in the present Debt Ceiling bill which alleviate the unnecessary need to cut assistance to those who need it. Food assistance for very low-income older adults is not one of them. A million or so of older adults aged 50-54 will or are now at risk of losing food assistance, including a large number of women. Some of our legislators are in drastic need of the same physical labor to which many the fifty-something...

Kip Sullivan sent this article to me a while back and it was posted. I am starting to see more activity on Value-based-care as an alternative to Fee For Service. The question arises as to how does one measure value received from the care under this regime. It is difficult to measure the value and what value found can not justify value-based care. A quick introduction to the topic of this article. Hence a repost of this article and one other...