The Angry Bear

Did you know Stockman is still alive?  I didn’t until I ran across some “analysis” of his at The Brownstone Institute.  Let’s look at his latest. Stockman is troubled that Biden and his advisers wear masks when they meet (my emphasis): Yet if the Vaxx is actually a spread stopper, why do they sit there in their masks? What’s the need to protect Biden from Fauci when the sainted doctor is armed to the teeth with vaxxed-in antibodies? And why is...

Final existing home sales report of 2021 is positive  As we wind down the year, most of the remaining data will be from the housing sector. Tomorrow we get new home sales, then next week one final round of house price indexes.  Two months ago I wrote that “I suspect new home sales will increase, since interest rates stabilized at very low rates earlier this year, and the increase in existing home sales is some confirmatory evidence.” Since...

This topic is blowing up in the news. Politicians claiming recipients are laying out cash for drugs and other unneeded things. Funny thing, they didn’t give a damn when 20 million hydrocodone and oxycodone tabs showed up at five pharmacies in 4 small towns having a total population of ~22000 in 2016. Gotta keep those pharma contributions rolling into their campaign funds. I featured this in a 2018 post, if you read it . . . How are Low Income...

Coronavirus dashboard for December 21: exponential spread is here  As I warned you on Saturday, there might be some hooky-playing this week; and as I also said, that was “Omicron permitting.” Well, Omicron warrants an update today. Because exponential spread is underway especially in those parts of the country most exposed to international visitors. But first, in the spirit of leading indicators, let’s take a look at South Africa, where...

Farmer and Agriculture Economist Michael Smith “[Land profits] are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without the care and attention of his own” -Adam Smith In other words, land appreciates not by the owners doing, but his neighbors.  Sure, there are certain things that can be done to improve land, build a house, clear the brush and trees, install utilities. Or choose none of the above and wait.  The post pandemic...

I understand why congressional Democrats are frustrated with Manchin.  But what on earth is the point of this: “I do believe the president when he said to us, and to me personally, that he got a commitment from Senator Manchin or [Manchin] would have to go back on his word,” Jayapal told reporters on a Monday afternoon press call. “And obviously yesterday, the senator took the latter path and went back on this word. That lack of integrity is...

November’s retail sales, industrial production, producer prices, & new home construction; October’s business inventories, Summary: Record 9.6% Annual Increase in November Producer Price Index; Record 6.9% YoY Increase in Core Prices; Record 7.1% YoY Increase for Final Demand Services, Record YoY 14.9% Increase for Final Demand Goods, and a 46+ year Record for Prices of Intermediate Goods The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI)...

The italian idiom for a low blow (also for an unexpected blow) is “un tiro mancino” literally a left handed blow. Manchin hit all the other Democrats with a tiro mancino yesterday. Notably “mancino” means left handed so, hard as it is to believe, he had ancestors who were lefties as in left handed. Aside from the irresistable pun, I feel the need to write about senator Manchin, because I can’t stop thinking about him. I suspect that reading this...

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for December 13 – 17 at Seeking Alpha [Brief programming note: this coming week will only see existing home sales on Wednesday, and new home sales plus jobless claims on Thursday. In other words – don’t be surprised if I take a couple of days off. Omicron permitting] My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. While the large majority of the strictly economic data continues positive in all...