The Angry Bear

I have been writing since early this year that, because of the pandemic, there have been several million fewer persons looking for work, leaving a huge number of unfilled job vacancies, particularly in the face of a roughly 10% higher jump in demand. This gives employees the upper hand, as there are almost always higher paying jobs on offer for which they can apply. I‘ve also posited that the dynamic would only slow down once some employers...

In chemistry, and in physics, a positive feedback loop usually yields an explosion. In biology, it is a population explosion. In electronics, it might be an unpleasant screech. In economics, both housing bubbles and inflation are products of a positive feedback loop. In re Global Warming: The melting of permafrost due to Global Warming releases methane a greenhouse gas which increases Global Warming, …, …. The melting of Arctic Ice reduces...

“Major Insurers Are Scamming Billions from Medicare, Whistle-Blowers Say” – PNHP, John Tozzi, Bloomberg, April 12, 2022 Teresa Ross had been raising objections at work for months when her bosses brought in a psychologist hoping to make her question her own sanity. A longtime manager at a Seattle health plan called Group Health Cooperative, Ross had opposed changes to the way the company billed Medicare. With the help of a new vendor, the...

Continued good news for consumers on gas prices There’ll be lots of economic news starting tomorrow, but for today let’s pause and take a look at the energy situation. Here’s a look at oil prices in the past year up through yesterday from CNBC: And here’s a look over the same time period from Gas Buddy: Here’s a close-up of gas prices for the past month: Gas prices follow oil prices with typically a delay of several weeks. Oil prices...

The republicans are indignant as hell that the Inflation Reduction Act, née Climate and Healthcare Bill, would increase funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Since Reagan, republicans had been defunding it for them that brought them; them being the very rich who don’t like paying taxes. After the 2010 cuts, it had gotten to the point that the rich hardly pay any taxes at all. Why bother; the IRS didn’t have the money nor the personnel to...

I believe we should fund traditional Medicare more, if the funds are going there (the funds are not going there). If you want something else, you are on your own. I do not want to pay the additional costs involved with MA Plans which we are doing out of Medicare funds. It is also no secret Medicare Advantage has been over coding patients they do accept, rejects those patients who may be more ill, and selects healthier patients. In some cases and...

“August 27, 2022,” Heather Cox Richardson, (substack.com) In a speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden called out today’s MAGA Republicans for threatening “our personal rights and economic security…. They’re a threat to our very democracy.” When he referred to them as “semi-fascists,” he drew headlines, some of them disapproving.A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee called the comment “despicable,” although Republicans have...

I wanted to find a post/article which could details the differences between 2011 and 2022. I could not find exactly what I wanted. Infidel’s post comes close. I am looking at the years after 2008 when the nation was struggling to get back on an even keel. What is difference between 2011 and 2022? For one thing, actions not taken in 2011, were taken in 2022 due to the pandemic. The extension of funds to help families with children, increased ACA...

A tweet sent me to this column Ezra Klein wrote long, long ago in a city far away. In the heady day of April 8 2021, Klein discussed Joseph Biden’s radicalism and contrasted it with Barack Obama’s caution. I remember. Biden had just signed the American Rescue plan and was proposing what would be called the infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act (ne’ Build Back Better). “I covered him in the Senate, in the Obama White House, in the...