The Angry Bear

This showed up in my In Box today. Andrew Sprung at xpostfactoid is reporting on the impact of the American Rescue Plan impact healthcare. “U.S. uninsured rate hits an all-time low; Biden’s HHS takes a victory lap, ” xpostfactoid by Andrew Sprung The low rate is because of Biden and Dem’s American Rescue Plan which “enhanced Marketplace subsidies, the continuous enrollment provision in Medicaid, several recent state Medicaid expansions, and...

Coronavirus dashboard for August 3: is this what endemicity looks like?  – by New Deal democrat Confirmed cases nationwide (dotted line below) declined to 121,700, still within their recent 120-130,000 range. Deaths (solid line) are also steady at 431, within their recent 400-450 range as well: Hospitalizations have plateaued in the past 10 days reported in the 45-47,000 range, and as of July 30 were 46,100. A commenter at Seeking Alpha who...

JOLTS report for June amplifies likelihood of substantial downturn in job growth, upturn in unemployment Before we get to the JOLTS report for June, which was released this morning, I wanted to make a point about the overall trend in employment. Because, the two best short leading indicators for employment and unemployment are both pointing South. First, as I have written dozens of times over the past 10+ years, consumption leads employment,...

August 2, 2022, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Today, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to their state constitution that would have stripped it of protections for abortion rights. With 86% of the vote in, 62% of voters supported abortion protections; 37% wanted them gone. That spread is astonishing. Kansas voters had backed Trump in 2020; Republicans had arranged for the referendum to fall on the day of...

Various (most) articles I typically get during a week. Some I look up to see what else is going on in the world. Most of this I briefly scan the articles and read what is interesting to me. I sometimes start writing on the topics, am interrupted, and find myself having to recall some of the thoughts with which I started. Economy “Price Gouging at the Pump Results in 235% Profit Jump for Big Oil: Analysis” (commondreams.org), Jessica Corbett...

That coming from Alan Collinge of Student Loan Justice Org. I have been writing about him, his supporters and followers, his Org. Student Loan Justice, and the government’s response to student loans for a decade now. This is news, facts, etc. about 45 million people in 2022 and not some anecdote. The post title comes from Alan Collinge’s* article in an email to me after I sent him this article, surprisingly originating in the New Yorker....

Tags: open thread

Quick note; “ISM metric strongly suggests that it is likely that the economy will enter recession no later than Q1 of next year, and possibly much sooner (but probably not now). more detail below July manufacturing and June construction spending: leading components of both are negative  – by New Deal democrat As usual, the new month’s first data is for manufacturing and construction. Here’s a look at each. The ISM manufacturing index,...

Kip Sullivan sent this article to me today. Usually, I find them before he sends them to me. A quick introduction to the topic of this article. Billions of dollars are being spent on value-based ACO programs. They have done little to improve Americans’ health or lower health care costs. As the authors point out, of the 50+ ACOs examined, less than a handful cut costs. The ACO organizational cost saves were one percent or less. “Value-based...

Dale Coberly found this excellent analysis on economic happenings by Yanis Varoufakis. How did all of this Inflation come about? Certainly, wages have not been outstripping everything else. Labor is going to take a hit eventually. We do have supply chain issues. Much caused by countries shutting down. Companies not maintaining orders to the manufacturers is also a part. Automotive again shoots itself in this manner and blames everything else....