Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Geneticist The Nobel Laureate economist Paul Samuelson famously acknowledged in a Meet the Press interview: “Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?” This observation applies to the advice from medical authorities such as the CDC and WHO during the COVID pandemic. Some members of the public are fond of pillorying these agencies for having published...
Read More »Oil supply near 10 yr low; big hit to gasoline output & demand
Commenter and Blogger RJS, Focus on Fracking US oil supplies near a 10 year low; biggest hit to gasoline output & demand since 2020 lockdownStrategic Petroleum Reserve at a new 19 year low; total crude supplies near a 10 year low; gasoline production and gasoline demand fall by most in 21 months; gasoline supplies rise by most in 21 months; distillate supplies rise by most in a year US oil data from the US Energy Information...
Read More »More signs of real tightness, while new jobs added are (seasonally?) disappointing
December jobs report: more signs of real tightness, while new jobs added are (seasonally?) disappointing There were three big questions I had going into this jobs report: 1. whether the big decrease in new jobless claims to a half-century low would translate to another big top-line number in the jobs report2. is wage growth holding up? Is it accelerating?3. Would last month’s “poor” 210,000 number of new jobs be revised higher? The answers...
Read More »First post on Angry Bear 2003
(Dan here…just a ‘for example’ of the econ blogosphere for your curiosity) February 14, 2003 3:20 am Income and Consumption by Angry Bear So here’s the bit of information that lead me to finally decide to put my two cents on the web. Dave Neiwert reports that the 2003 Economic Report of the President contains language referring to plans to eliminate or reduce the income tax and replace it with a consumption (i.e., sales) tax. This is an...
Read More »Is ‘Big Pharma’ To Blame For the Opioid Crisis?
That is a pretty dumb question. There are still some who claim they are not even to blame or responsible after a couple of decades of Pharma spreading around this poison. Now some are trying to make the others who are restricting the use of legal drugs the enemy. Some opening points before I get into the next part of this entitled topic. In 2015, 227 million prescriptions were written for opioids such as OxyContin, Vicodin, and Fentanyl. This...
Read More »Initial and continuing jobless claims: 2022 starts out where 2021 left off
Initial and continuing jobless claims: 2022 starts out where 2021 left off The labor market in 2022 started out where it left off in 2021, as new claims increased slightly, by 7,000, to 207,000. The 4 week average of new claims increased 4.750 to 204,500: Readings this low haven’t been seen in half a century. Continuing claims for jobless benefits also rose slightly, by 36,000, to 1,754,000: Except for 2018-19, we haven’t seen continuing...
Read More »Biden, bipartisanship, and the January 6 attack
I just read the transcript of Biden’s address on the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, which has gotten generally favorable reviews. I thought the speech highlighted an inconsistency in Biden’s approach to politics that has served him poorly. Biden has emphasized bringing the country together, working with Republicans, and returning the country to “normal”. This was obviously never going to happen. Of course, it was possible that the...
Read More »Open thread Jan. 7, 2022
Liberals did not polarize the pandemic
Via Brad DeLong: Shadi, this makes zero sense. Liberals made masks, expertise, and science a "cultural identity marker" because it is stark raving insane in a pandemic to adopt any other culture. You seem to be assuming it's normal, somehow, that half our country has entered a mass psychosis– https://t.co/jFdPhPa5qi— Claire Berlinski. (@ClaireBerlinski) December 28, 2021Berlinski understates her case. The notion that liberals claim to “follow...
Read More »Imagine, if you will, a game of musical chairs
November JOLTS report: imagine, if you will, a game of musical chairs, New Deal democrat Imagine a game like musical chairs, except that some players are the chairs (employers) as well as people who want to sit in the chairs (potential employees), and players, both sitters and chairs, are continually entering and exiting the game. The game would be in equilibrium if the number of sitters and chairs are always equal. If there are more...
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