The Angry Bear

Initial jobless claims now in a clear uptrend, and other economic notes for the week First, a note on other economic news from earlier this week.  The housing market is getting absolutely crushed by 10 year+ high mortgage rates. Mortgage applications fell to levels not seen since 2017 (except for a few weeks during the 2020 Covid lockdowns). Refinancing is at 20 year lows. The next questions are when prices will peak, and what will happen with...

Dale Coberly has written on Social Security numerous times over the years. The Northwest Plan which he developed was recognized by the SS Administration as being a potential solution to a shortfall in SS benefits. Dale briefly describes below how the solution might work in resolving the SS shortfall. Just a heads up. I am not sure if Dale will give a lengthier report. ~~~~~~ The 2022 Social Security Trustees Report was released a few days ago....

In this series we explore marketing farm fresh goods in the litany of different ways as a direct consumer edibles farmer. Many types of farms exist within the framework of directly edible, from market gardens, to 100 acre California avocado fields, dairy barns, hen houses, and multiple large monocrop “people food” producers. Direct to Consumer is exactly what it implies. A farmer seeds, grows, reaps or milks, slaughters and packs food and then...

RJS: MarketWatch 666 Summary: Construction Spending Up 0.2% on Higher Prices in April, after March Spending was Revised 0.6% Higher The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending for April (pdf) estimated the month’s seasonally adjusted construction spending was at a $1,744.8 billion annual rate during the month. Up 0.2 percent (±0.8 percent)* from the revised March annual spending rate of $1,740.6 billion, and 12.3 percent (±1.3...

A small but influential faction of the Democratic left seems to be committed to the idea that the way out of our political difficulties is to persuade Democratic voters that they should be very angry at Democratic politicians.  This is insane on every level.  For example, Ben Burgis in Jacobin argues (as far as I can tell) that the fact that Democrats are not “waging war” against the filibuster shows that they are “hypocrites” and do not “give a...

“Are Any of Us Safe at Work?” | MedPage Today, Mengyi “Zed” Zha, MD Me: The title rings true. The only discussions I have read are about assigning guards to SCOTUS Justices and other supposedly important groups. This is only a small segment of the population. When it comes down to the rest of us, its “we can’t violate the rights of “gun” buyers, owners, open carries, etc.” The answer to the question is NONE of us are safe and Congress will not do...

Why In The US IS D-Day Memorialized While The Battle Of Midway Is Not?  Today is 6/6/22, 78 years after 6/6/44, D-Day, when American, British, and Canadian troops stormed beaches in Normandy to push the Germans out of France.  It was a dramatic landing, with many dying heroically, and depicted in several highly popular movies with famous actors in them, including The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. While not a full-blown holiday, it was...

Coronavirus variant update: and on to the BA.4/5 wave Last week the CDC update showed variant “Ba.1.1.526” increasing quickly to 6.6% of all cases. Although they did not note it, I wrote that this was almost certainly Ba.4/5; they simply had not made the change yet. Well, this week they did. This morning’s “nowcast” update of variants shows Ba.1.1.526 having vanished, with Ba.4/5 having taken its place, and having doubled to 13% of all cases in...

In the commentary, Steve Hutkins is addressing is Post Office Suspension of operations. In this case, there are 454 Post Offices in suspension with no resolution. Some Suspensions have been as long as 5 years. The issue is the Suspension and a potential the policy of a Suspension being used to close a Post Office permanently with no public input. “A Suspension occurs when the Postal Service stops operations at a post office due to an emergency or...