The Angry Bear

For the past few days I have been wondering if Netanyahu has a plan for responding to the Hamas terror killings, or if he’s just temporizing.  More and more, it seems like he is just skating in front of the breaking ice.  If this is right, it’s one more misdeed for which he and his cronies need to be held accountable. Any competent military would have a carefully worked out contingency plan for all-out war against Hamas.  That plan would take into...

Roosevelt Institute’s Economist Mike Konczal calls this a remarkable recovery. The increase in the number of people working has helped tamp down inflation and has shown the importance of aiming for full employment. Myself? I do not think this was planned by any authority, including the Fed. One belief I do have is there being a contrived supply chain shortage by business leading to increasing need for Labor. I do not recall a positive economic...

Weekly Indicators for October 9 – 13 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The recent improvement in the short leading indicators has made its way through to the coincident indicators. But, given the importance of gas prices, whether the turmoil in the Middle East spreads out to affect oil producing countries is a major issue. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the...

The situation at the Rafah crossing from the Gaza strip to Egypt is crazy beyond belief. Crazy things are happing. Sane things are not happening, basically because it is closed even though there are US citizens desperate to cross it to get out of the Gaza strip and a desperate need to get food and medicine and fuel for generators into the Gaza strip. The Rafah crossing is closed partly because, although Israel can not order it closed, their...

This post will be long and confused. It is on a topic on which I am unusually especially ignorant as I decided that the case was hopeless 20 years ago and stopped following it. The current war makes me think that, at least things could be less horrible than they are, and I can’t help trying to think of how the horror could be reduced. First, I think that the current Israeli military action is a strategic mistake. I also think that the civilian...

I thought this article was a solid rehash of what took place in the early seventies when we were driving the inefficient monsters Detroit was manufacturing. It was only a short time earlier, smaller and more efficient foreign cars arrived in the US from places such as Japan. I was fortunate to snag a Datsun 510 shortly before the oil embargo. Some information on this article, where it came from, and the authors. The Conversation allows...

Also, is the solution just dissolved iron sulfate or also dissolved silica ? Sorry for the pun in the title. It is a reference to one of the hives on twitter — the nuclear energy enthusiasts who note the large fraction of zero carbon electricity currently produced by nuclear reactors.* Another approach to dealing with global warming is carbon capture. There is industrial scale carbon capture technology (which makes nuclear energy look cost...

I do not follow the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians closely because it is complex, well outside my area of expertise, and deeply depressing.  I find it depressing because I have always believed in a two-state solution, and it has long been difficult watching that goal slip ever further out of reach.  After the barbaric terror attack on Israelis by Hamas and the increasing likelihood of an excessively brutal Israeli response it is worth...

Real average wages decline, while real aggregate payroll gains remain below peak  – by New Deal democrat With the report on September inflation yesterday, we can update two measures of how well average American workers are doing: real average wages and real aggregate payrolls. Nominally wages increased 0.2% for the month. With consumer prices up 0.4%, real wages declined -0.2%: Real wages had been in an increasing trend since gas prices...

State of Global Water Resources 2022, World Meteorological Organization, wmo.int. The hydrological cycle is undergoing significant changes, with increasing global variability. Mainly due to climate change and human interventions. Living with Water Scarcity, Angry Bear, Dan Crawford, Living with Water Scarcity (2nd edition), The one-handed economist, David Zetland. ...