The Angry Bear

Open thread February 7, 2023, Angry Bear, angrybearblog.com Tags: open thread

From My Lovely And Talented Wife®My Ukranian friend just sent me a photo of a supermarket that was leveled to the ground during the Russian invasion and massacre in Bucha in March, 2022. She looks out on this from her nearby 14th floor window, and she is heartened by the fact that the area is now being cleared for rebuilding. Such efforts are everywhere, she tells me. People are hard at work to bring the city back to what it was.I just met my lively...

Real average wages and real aggregate payrolls for nonsupervisory workers through January  – by New Deal democrat With no new data today, to close out the week let’s update real average wages and aggregate payrolls for nonsupervisory workers. This is the best way, based on monthly data, to see how average Americans are doing financially. While average nonsupervisory wages increased 0.2% in January, consumer inflation increased more, at 0.5%,...

The President, Joe Biden, talking about the economy. In many ways, he made the right moves in protecting us from a reoccurrence of a similar 2008 event. This came after WallStreet blew up the economy by gambling, could not ante up, and government did not put enough on the table to rescue the economy. Main Street paid . . . February 15, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson President Joe Biden hit the road today to...

AmericanDream.Tumblr.comAfter all, some of the greatest writers churned out their best work later in life. 

Slight decline in housing construction: the negative actual economic impact has not yet begun  – by New Deal democrat Housing permits (gold) increased slightly in January from their December lows, while the more volatile housing starts (blue) declined again. The much less volatile single family permits (red, right scale) also declined again to a new post-pandemic low: This is a very important long leading indicator, and shows that coming...

Initial claims: nobody is getting laid off, but slight weakness in continuing claims compared with 2022  – by New Deal democrat Initial claims remained below 200,000 at 195,000, while the 4 week average increased very slightly to 189,500. Continuing claims increased to 1,696,000, the third highest number in over a year: Holiday seasonality has ended. It continues to be the case that almost nobody is getting laid off. Very slightly on the...

I was catching up with what is going on in the courts. Went to my favorite reference point which involves the ABA and what Lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky thinks. Some commentary on Student Loan forgiveness. SCOTUS will decide if states are suffering from forgiveness of loans. If they collect nothing, which will be the issue, then what is the problem? ~~~~~~~~ The State of Texas filed suit in their favorite pick-of-the-day federal court. Filing in...

My Thoughts I am not sure what Prof. Dean means by elites. Was looking for an explanation. It may have zoomed by me if it is not obviously called out. In the beginning of his commentary, we read of declining population in China. The makeup of the population is older. Been there numerous times going from plant to plant and working with my counterparts there. Marvelous country to explore with the assistance of my associates there. Making the leap...

In March, 2022, Pew Research released a study showing that in 2020, 23% of Americans spent more than half their income on rent. Since then, rents in most parts of the country have gone up 16% (because they could). Safe to say, the income of those 23% did not go up 16%. Rent increases play a major role in the current round of inflation. Though the percentage of increase in rent (inflation) was greater than most other items; the media has said...