The Angry Bear

July new home sales signal a recession is near  Let’s start with reminders about new home sales data: 1. It is very noisy 2. It is heavily revised. But 3. It usually leads at peaks and troughs. With that in mind, unless today’s new home sales data for July is revised away, it is very significant. First of all, June’s sales data was indeed revised slightly lower from 590,000 to 585,000. More significantly, the median price of a...

Kind of a mixed bag on articles this week. Quite a few articles on what I would call general interest, kind of interesting stories. An abused elephant tears his owner into two pieces. An article about a pod of penguins(?) save a swimmer from a shark? It is worth a read just to find out the author meant dolphins (which is in the text). Sad Good Byes Judith Durham obituary | Pop and rock | The Guardian, Garth Cartwright, As you age, you begin to...

Data for Progress has new polling showing that Social Security is very popular, and that Social Security messaging helps Democrats in a generic ballot poll.     The DFP polling comes on the heels of recent comments from Republican politicians about cutting, sunsetting, or privatizing Social Security. So in theory Social Security looks like a good issue for Democrats, and they may bring a messaging bill up for a vote this fall.  The problem...

Republican: A synonym for Selfishness and Narcissism and Violence Synonym: a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language; a person or thing so closely associated with a particular quality or idea that the mention of their name calls it to mind. Selfishness: the quality or condition of being selfish. Narcissism: selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need...

The state of inflation There’s no big economic news today (Aug. 22), and as usual very limited COVID reporting over the weekend, so let’s catch up on the state of inflation in the economy. Three of the biggest components of inflation have been gas, housing, and vehicles. Let’s look at each in that order. According to GasBuddy, average US prices as of today are $3.86/gallon: As the above graph shows, that means that almost 80% of the...

“America is the most advanced country in the world.” So we hear. Even if it is so, it is so, perhaps, and only perhaps, on average. Seems the majority of the population does want to progress. Also seems that a significant minority of the population is, has long been, inclined to regress. Moreover, many of this same minority are inclined to want to impose regression on the rest of us. And, while these folk may like technology and all the other...

There are many places where the water has been polluted by something. Ten Bears talks about Bend, Oregon. 1979 and one of the largest environmental complaints was lodged by the Federal government against a major corporation. Acting on behalf of EPA, the Department of Justice filed four suits against Hooker Chemical Co. Hooker Chemical and its parent corporation Occidental Petroleum Corporation were to clean up four chemical waste dumpsites in...

As taken from Infidel753‘s Blog, Infidel, “The raid.” Written not even two weeks ago and accurate as to what took place leading up to the raid, reactions by “wingnuts,” and the blogosphere perspective on what they call an illegal raid. Republicans deceiving themselves is still on going since January 6. Rather than aligning themselves with the rule of law, Repubs are off on another journey of denial. They missed their chance to call it quits and...

Just as some of those first to suffer the consequences of Climate Change were those who had been subsisting on marginal lands; some of the first to suffer the consequences of the most recent round of inflation were those who had been subsisting on marginal incomes. This was a lot of Americans. Before inflation, they were barely making ends meet because too much of their too little income was going towards housing. In a more balanced economy, housing...