The Angry Bear

Photo by Ian Keefe on UnsplashFrank Cross: “It’s Christmas Eve! It’s . . . it’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we . . . we . . . we smile a little easier, we . . . w-w-we . . . we . . . we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be!” Bill Murray “Scrooged“ Dan and Bill ...

The conversation started with my investment person about two particulars which I was curious as to what he was expecting in returns. Those two were losing somewhat over the last 5 months. Excitedly, he started off on how the Fed was going to rein in inflation. I listened and answered. However you do it, raising rates is not going to fix the infrastructure for supply chain, much less JIT, and the processes of increasing supply. In 2008, we had...

Jay Bhattacharya is one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for the immediate elimination of all lockdowns and “focused protection” of the vulnerable.  Yesterday Bhattacharya tweeted this: On second thought, I would rather be ruled by people who think the earth is flat than by people who are blind to trade offs in pandemic policy. The latter are likely to do far harm. Spherical earthers with a wise approach to...

If Barkley is writing about it, it warrants space on AB. RIP Sharon L. O’Hare, Econospeak, Barley Rosser I know, I know, my part of this blog is increasingly resembling an obituary column. But, heck, people I know who are conneted to econ keep dying, although this one was not as well known as others. Sharon Lyn O’Hare was a former student of mine 40 years ago at James Madison University, and while she never finished her PhD at Boston...

Record 9.6% Annual Increase in November Producer Price Index; Record 6.9% YoY Increase in Core Prices; Record 7.1% YoY Increase for Final Demand Services, Record 14.9% Increase for Final Demand Goods, and a 46+ year Record for Prices of Intermediate Goods, RJS, MarketWatch 666 The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.8% in November, as prices for finished wholesale goods rose 1.2% while margins of final services...

“the economist who thinks he has caught what all the virologists have missed” is right here Paul. OK now I have to put my mouth where my mouth is. I do honestly think I have answers which are of interest to actual virologists. Start with the antibody, then find the antigen. This is really a thought about vaccine development. Now, notably, they seem to be doing that rather well back in my home town (to put it mildly). “SILVER...

Did you know Stockman is still alive?  I didn’t until I ran across some “analysis” of his at The Brownstone Institute.  Let’s look at his latest. Stockman is troubled that Biden and his advisers wear masks when they meet (my emphasis): Yet if the Vaxx is actually a spread stopper, why do they sit there in their masks? What’s the need to protect Biden from Fauci when the sainted doctor is armed to the teeth with vaxxed-in antibodies? And why is...

Final existing home sales report of 2021 is positive  As we wind down the year, most of the remaining data will be from the housing sector. Tomorrow we get new home sales, then next week one final round of house price indexes.  Two months ago I wrote that “I suspect new home sales will increase, since interest rates stabilized at very low rates earlier this year, and the increase in existing home sales is some confirmatory evidence.” Since...

This topic is blowing up in the news. Politicians claiming recipients are laying out cash for drugs and other unneeded things. Funny thing, they didn’t give a damn when 20 million hydrocodone and oxycodone tabs showed up at five pharmacies in 4 small towns having a total population of ~22000 in 2016. Gotta keep those pharma contributions rolling into their campaign funds. I featured this in a 2018 post, if you read it . . . How are Low Income...