The Angry Bear

By Isabel Soisson The Copper Courier AB: This piece on the IRA cover quite a bit of territory discussing the Inflation Reduction Act. There is still more that was accomplished under the Biden Administration with the American Rescue Plan 2021 Act. Who would have thought an old president suffering from dementia could have accomplished so much? Listening to Biden for a while. It did not appear like he had a teleprompter and he covered a lot of...

by Emily Atkin Heated World The richest man in the world has a new message about climate change: It’s real, but don’t knock the industry most responsible. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry,”  Elon Musk said while speaking about climate change during his two-hour conversation with former president Donald Trump last week. It was a sentiment Musk repeated four times throughout the 10-minute climate discussion....

– by New Deal democrat It’s a slow economic news week, so don’t be surprised if I play hookie tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime, now that we have July’s inflation data, we can update some “real” consumer well-being indicators. First, real average hourly wages for nonsupervisory workers rose 0.1% in July to a new all-time high excluding April through June 2020: It has risen 3.8% since its pre-pandemic all-time high, and 3.0% from...

If the skies are clear tonight by you, it may be interesting to look to the sky to see the Moon. Supposedly it is blue, full, and what is called a super moon. What is a super blue moon and why is it so rare? What is so special about the August 19 super blue moon. It is exactly a combination of three elements . . . a full moon, a supermoon, and a blue moon at the same time. According to NASA, tonight’s combination is quite ‘irregular’...

The existential crisis of our time is global warming. The planet is already in deep trouble, with polar ice melting, permafrost thawing, sea level rising, increased desertification and more violent storms. The hour is late.“The quest for net zero needs to be fought on many fronts. You have your vanguard offense: simply reducing the carbon footprint of the things we already do. Then there’s the field medics: tactics like planting more trees and...

AB: That the US is still playing around with costly old technology and pollutes the environment is unbelievable. In the end, it will come back and haunt the later generations as energy and resources become more expensive. Ford Motor Co. is ramping up production of its F-Series Super Duty pickups with a $3 billion investment to keep up with the explosive demand for the trucks. The Detroit automaker plans put around $2.3 billion of that...

The Chronic Challenges of Poverty – Public Health Post Having empty pockets can impact long-term health. Poverty has been linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, among other chronic conditions. The symptoms of chronic diseases are caused by inflammation, part of the body’s immune response. Obesity, stress, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic diseases involve a constant state of inflammation, often causing fatigue, joint or...

by Joseph Joyce Capital Ebbs and Flows The Republican nomination of Donald Trump as its nominee for President ensures that international trade will be a major issue in the campaign. Trump views trade as a zero-sum game and the existence of U.S. trade deficits as proof that other nations have taken advantage of U.S. openness (= weakness). Tariffs are the primary policy tool to respond to the unfair treatment of U.S.-made goods and even the...

by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse Twenty twenty-four finds the Democrats nominating a Black woman to run for president. Said another way, a woman will be nominated by a major party as its candidate to be the president of the United States. The first time in our history in either instance. This will all take place in an upcoming convention. Kamala Harris is eminently qualified by virtue of both experience and temperament; if you haven’t...

Back when we were grad students at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1977-82, my wife and I made several trips to the Outer Banks. One reason was to visit her uncle and his family, who lived in Buxton, just north of Hatteras lighthouse. What struck me then was how many people lived in homes on the coast in spite of the flooding risk. Not only the storm surge from the Atlantic that washed over the barrier islands from the east, but after the storm passed, the...