The Angry Bear

Matt Yglesias is stimulating heated discussion — that’s his job. Before getting to the point, I think that his $250,000 guaranteed advance from SubStack has stimulated a lot of extremely intense envy (I know I envy him) which tends to add a bit of spice to his provocative posts one of which is Tema Okun’s “White Supremacy Culture” work is bad a diatribe contra someone of whom I have never heard. I think the tone is harsher than it has to be...

While commenting on Alan Collinge’s Student Loan Justice site about much of what is being revealed here, I pointed out the problem with interest, interest on top of interest, paying interest before principal, etc. . It is a problem. You never touch principle. I am very happy to see the Student Loan Justice site and Alan get the attention it deserves with this article by the Insider. It is unbelievable, people are accruing interest during...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for May 3 – 7 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. YoY comparisons remain ridiculous, so seasonally adjusted data, plus comparisons with 2019 where available are more informative. That being said, all of the coincident and short leading indicators point towards continued strong expansion. The longer leading forecast is much murkier, partly because of some sharp...

In a recent post, libertarian political philosopher Jason Brennan argues that “we should ignore the welfare of people who choose not to vaccinate out of paranoia”.  We owe them nothing.  Brennan reaches this conclusion by analogizing vaccine hesitancy to a heckler’s veto (my bold): The idea of heckler’s veto goes as follows: Take any action, P, which is permissible. Now imagine that a person makes a credible threat to do something wrongful or bad...

The Death of Dick Day I learned a few days ago that Richard (Dick) Hollis Day died about a month ago.  There is no obit yet, so I do not have exact dates of birth or death, but communicating with an old mutual friend who knows his oldest son, apparently he succumbed to dementia and related problems that had him declining over the last several years at his home in Cambria, California.  He was born in 1933, but not sure of exact date, so he was...

April jobs report: well, that was a big miss …. but look at the composition HEADLINES: +266,000 million jobs added: 218,000 private sector plus 48,000 government. The alternate, and more volatile measure in the household report indicated a gain of 328,000 jobs, which factors into the unemployment and underemployment rates below.U3 unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 6.1%, compared with the January 2020 low of 3.5%.U6 underemployment rate declined...

 by New Deal democrat The long leading indicator of credit conditions has just been updated by the Fed The easing or tightening of credit conditions has a good track record as a long leading indicator, giving us information about whether the economy will be expanding or contracting in 12+ months. The Fed just updated its Senior Loan Officer Survey for Q1, which covers both the easing or tightening of credit supply on the one hand, and...

Tags: open thread

Want a Public Option? Not So Fast, Say Health Insurers. Guess Who is Fighting It! Much of this is from an Op-Ed at MedPage Today authored by Wendel Potter. I have added to it as Wendel discusses the impact of insurance as a major influence on healthcare cost. It is one sided and the commentary ignores increased healthcare costs (pharma, hospitals, healthcare supplies, and doctors). I have touched upon both at MedPage Today and here. The...