The Angry Bear

April 8, 1865, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson On April 8, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant was having a hard night.  His army had been harrying Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s for days, and Grant knew it was only a question of time before Lee had to surrender. The people in the Virginia countryside were starving, and Lee’s army was melting away. Just that morning a Confederate colonel had thrown himself on Grant’s...

Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Israel, India, Italy, Brazil, …, and even the USA; around the world, we are seeing democracies lurching toward autocracy and/or theocracy. A hundred years from now, history will tell us what it was all about. It would help to know now. Though no common denominator stands out; one of the more common is religion. More specifically, it is right-wing religious groups either leading the charge toward theocracy or being...

Weekly Indicators for April 3 – 7 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha.  Probably unsurprisingly, the big news this week was the effect of the revisions to the initial jobless claims data, and also the turning down of several sectors in the monthly jobs report. Anyway, as usual clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to the data, and reward me a little bit...

Open Thread April 3, 2023, Angry Bear, angry bear blog Tags: open thread

CRFB’s FINAL ANALYSIS OF 2023  SOCIAL SECURITY TRUSTEES REPORT  Analysis of the 2023 Social Security Trustees’ Report, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Social Security Dale Coberly: I reported a few days ago on CRFB’s “preliminary analysis” of the 2023 Social Security Trustees Report.  I hoped to show then that though CRFB reported “true” facts, they surrounded those facts with misleading language intended to promote hysteria...

March jobs report: leading sectors turn down in a pre-recessionary, but still quite positive, report  – by New Deal democrat Unsurprisingly, my focus on this report, like the last few reports, was on whether residential construction jobs turned negative or not, whether manufacturing and temporary jobs continued on their downward trajectory, and whether the deceleration in job growth would be apparent. Some of the deceleration or decline...

This is another extension of what happens when private equity gets involved in business. Hospitals are more important as it has an impact on the neighborhoods around them. If one dies, the local neighborhood is stranded. Good article on just that topic. Private Equity and Its Hospitals, Washington Monthly, Merrill Goozner “Safety net hospitals” serve communities like those in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Finance companies serve themselves....

The Overdue Selection of Stuff from My In-Box. Some days are good at Angry Bear. Getting a background in how to run a Blog by myself at this time. Sometimes run out of ideas. Fortunately, I have good influx of articles hitting my In-Box daily. I recently cleaned out a couple of thousand emails going back a couple of years. Hoping Dan will get better and can join me. He was the brains and is the owner of Angry Bear. I just write or C&P . . ....

Revisions cause initial claims, the last positive leading indicator, to capitulate  – by New Deal democrat Initial and continuing claims underwent some serious revisions with this week’s release. Rather than attempt an explanation myself, here is the nub of the BLS’s own explanation: Beginning … [this week], the methodology used to seasonally adjust the national initial claims and continued claims reflects a change in the estimation of the...

This is a nice writeup on what is occurring in states which have enrolled multiples of their citizens into Medicaid due to various initiatives and the ACA. There has been a rollback of ACA insurance levels with the Silver plan having an actuary of 94%. People making up to 200% FPL pay little or nothing. Mediciad eligibility was increased to 150% FPL. This was a good initiative by the Biden administration and the correct action to take during a...