The Angry Bear

I really have to write about macroeconomics given the drama across the Channel in the UK. The story so far is that New Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng have managed to spook money managers by threatening to cut their taxes . Kwarteng proposed a mini budget cutting the top marginal tax rate (etc). The Pound depreciated not quite reaching parity with the dollar (fell bellow 104 cents though) and the 10 year...

Yea, I know. Who the hell is Mallory McMorrow. First let me explain Lana Theis. Lana is a state senator representing the Michigan state district I lived in when I was near Brighton, Brighton Michigan. Lana is Republican and was pretty much protected from being replaced due to state gerrymandering. You may remember her as the Michigan Republican state senator who falsely described McMorrow as a “groomer” in an April fundraising email. In the...

I am not an attorney; although, I have been in all levels of state and federal courts including Certs to SCOTUS. I had to learn by default to get my points across at times. Neither am I to be trifled with if you choose to make BS statements. I found this SCOTUS article to be interesting as I am seeing similar as an average citizen sitting on the sidelines wondering what plague has infected the courts. Judge Aileen Cannon is a knowledgeable person...

I am not a classical liberal, but classical liberals are right about some things.  In a sane world they could play a valuable role by challenging the thinking of social democrats, welfare state liberals, and others who believe the state has an important role to play in economic affairs.  We all need to be kept honest. But for decades, classical liberalism has been debased by the economic extremism of its adherents and their willing association...

Neofascist Giorgia Meloni will be the next Italian Prime minister. I feel I have to write about this being in Rome, but I am clueless as to how it happened (I wasn’t optimistic a year ago – I was expecting authoritarian xenophobe demagogue Matteo Salvini to be the next Italian prime minister — I guess the photo of him wearing a Vladimir Putin T-shirt when on Red Square might have cost him the authoritarian but not that authoritarian vote). A much...

The Institute for New Economic Thinking has an interview up with Peter Dorman about his new book on climate policy, Alligators in the Arctic and How To Avoid Them.  I haven’t read the book yet, but Peter shared some of his writing on climate with me a few years ago when I was trying to learn a bit about the topic, and I am sure the book is excellent.  Peter is an engaging writer, very knowledgeable about climate issues, interdisciplinary in his...

Kind of a mixed bag of what news was showing up in My In-Box. It was evenly spread amongst various topics. Ford building a battery plant just like everyone else is planning. Wall Street buying up residential homes. That purchasing of houses will come to no-good for the average citizen. ACA Preventive is under threat by a looney federal judge in Texas and SCOTUS has to decide. Non-Opioid pain treatment sounds like a good idea. If you do not like the...

Pharoah Sanders Has Passed  One of the greatest musical performances I ever saw live was in Spring 1966, sorry have not tracked down exact date, in the University of Wisconsin-Union theater. It was a live performance of the final group of John Coltrane. None of his great quartet from “A Love Supreme” were in it, but it still completely blew my mind.  Somehow this group had another saxophonist besides the greatest of them ever, Coltane, this guy...

House price indexes: more evidence of a summer peak  – by New Deal democrat The Case Shiller and FHFA house price indexes were updated through July (technically, the average of May through July) this morning. Ordinarily I do not pay them too much mind, but this year they are very important in confirming a peak in house prices. Although the FHFA index is seasonally adjusted, the Case Shiller index is not, so the best way to show them in...

I’m not a macro person, I can’t even play one on TV.  That said, from 20,000 feet, with my admittedly blurry glasses on, I really don’t understand why the Fed and other central banks are pushing so hard on the brakes.  What follows are questions, skeptical about rate hikes, but genuinely questions. What exactly would have happened if the Fed had raised rates more moderately, or even not at all?  Would inflation have spiraled out of control?  It’s...