The Angry Bear

Mortgage rates continue to rise; once the backlog in construction is cleared, this will likely kill housing No important economic news today (April 22), but an important negative trend in interest rates is continuing. Mortgage rates are now at 12 year highs. The weekly data from Freddy Mac’s weekly survey shows rates increased to 5.11% as of April 21: This is 2.46% above the low of 2.65% that was set at the end of 2020, and the...

SARS-CoV-2 transmission on planes – Katelyn Jetelina (substack.com) This substack article came to me by way of a commenter asking if I was interested in it. Of course, I am. It is a part of healthcare and covers a topic I believe is important to all of us. Stopping the transmission of Covid. Introduction On Monday, a Florida judge voided the U.S. mandate for public transit, which includes planes, trains, and buses. Several airlines...

Jobless claims: more 50+ year lows Initial jobless claims declined -2,000 to 184,000, another 50+ year low. The 4 week average rose from 4,500 to 177,250, compared with the all-time low of 170,500 set two weeks ago. Continuing claims declined -58,000 this week to 1,417,000, a new 50 year low (but still well above their 1968 all-time low of 988,000): Nobody  – still – is getting laid off. We’re still about 1.6 million shy of “full...

(Dan here….late to Angry Bear from Econospeak) by Barkley Rosser Happy Earth Day! Yes, today is the 53rd Earth Day.  I participated in the first one when it was held in Madison, Wisconsin on April 22, 1970, just as the environmental movement was really getting going.  There were observances elsewhere around the US, but Madison had pride of place as the person most responsible for getting Earth Day going was then Wisconsin Senator Gaylord...

Congressional Representative Marjorie Green is playing cat and mouse with an Administrative Judge who took to questioning her as her memory keeps failing on certain things she has said in the past. Green was continuously reminded of past comments to the point of her being declared a “hostile witness.” CNN — Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was in court on Friday over past social media posts and commentary advocating violence to...

— “One for you, and one for me,” works well enough for divvying up when there are only two. When there are more than two and the divvier gets one for everyone else’s one, that’s capitalism; one of the greatest cons of all times. Somehow, 1% convinced the other 99% to believe in something that was in the interest of the 1% and contrary the interests of the 99% without necessarily invoking religion. More like, they who hold the marbles make the...

These are sections of healthcare news articles which I thought might catch your eye and may interest you on topics in healthcare. I added the links to each article so you can read “the rest of the story” if you care to do so. Georgetown Center for Children and Families – What can be found in the News: “Pandemic’s end could surge the number of uninsured kids” (axios.com) Once the temporary reforms to Medicaid are lifted the ranks of uninsured...

Coronavirus dashboard for April 20: there’s a new subvariant in town Let me start with the current overview. As of today, Nationally cases are now rising sharply, up to 41,500, an increase of 25% in the past week: Hospitalizations are generally flat at slightly over 10,000, but new admissions have risen steadily, by 8% over the last 11 days: Deaths have continued to decline, to 452, a level lower than all times during the pandemic...

Rachel Maddow: Except there is a taped recording existing between McCarthy, Cheney, and others. Rachel Maddow “sharing an audio of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy saying that he would call Donald Trump and recommend that he resign in the wake of the January 6th attacks and with a second impeachment looming, as reported by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns of the New York Times in their new book “This Will Not Pass,” and contradicting McCarthy’s...