The Angry Bear

Mr. Etcetera The subtitle of T. R. Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population advertised its inclusion of “remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.” In volume I of Capital, Marx did not mention William Godwin’s name.  One might say, rather, that Marx studiously avoided mentioning Godwin. He did, however, engage in a sustained disparagement of Malthus — particularly his essay on population. This alone would...

Alan Collinge’s Student Loan Justice Facebook page. I keep talking about how the consolidation fees, late fees, forbearance interest, etc. and the interest on the previous adds up over time. Pretty soon, it surpasses the original loan balance. There are probably worse examples of this occurring. As it is, the non-principal payments are more than twice the original principal. The original loan was $105,000. As you can see there is ~$81,000 in...

Dare I Disagree With David Ignatius?  In today’s Washington Post (Dec. 31 ), intel columnist David Ignatius had a ten question multiple choice quiz about what will happen in 2022. He provided his own answers at the end, effectively forecasting.  Many I agree with and some, speculative about tech developments and such like, I have no opinion on.  However, on two very important ones, I think I disagree with him, if not overwhelmingly so. One of...

Hopeful New Year, New Deal democrat In view of the continued conflagration of the COVID pandemic, I am eschewing the traditional “Happy New Year!” salutation as we end 2021 and begin 2022 in favor of the above “Hopeful New Year.” I always try to stick with the data – one of the favorite things anyone has ever said about my writing is that I appear to be “praeternaturally detached” – and that almost always staying away from the “We’re...

2022? Another year passed. Be safe, mask up, distance yourselves, get the shots, and just be safe.

RIP Betty White. One of her finest moments: [embedded content] Tags: 2021, celebrities, death

PNHP, Single Payer Healthcare Financing Series, Kip Sullivan JD Kip Sullivan’s Three Part Presentation on Healthcare Finance Managed Care and Single Payer in Minnesota and the US. Answering the question of why Healthcare is so expensive in the United States as compared to other countries. Part 1: Single Payer Health Care Financing – Angry Bear Part 2: Single Payer Health Care Financing – Angry Bear Part 3: Single Payer Health Care...

Commenter and Blogger RJS, Perspective: I (RJS) suspect some of the inventory pullback has to do with tax strategies, but we’ve had all this sitting near multiyear lows going in, so they’re worth noting. I checked googled, & I don’t see anyone else reporting these lows, even at sites like oilprice.com. They’re probably on deadlines to get their articles done, and don’t have time to check the spreadsheets. Strategic Petroleum: Reserve at...

Coronavirus dashboard for year-end 2021: the Graph of the Year, where we are now, and where we are probably going At the end of the 2nd year of the pandemic, a little self-assessment of what I got right and wrong, where we are and where we are probably going. The one thing I got wrong in a big way is explained by this Coronavirus Graph of the Year: I thought sure that once the effectiveness of the vaccines was widely known, opposition...