The Angry Bear

Median household income and housing affordability Let’s take a look at the affordability (or not!) of housing since there is no economic news of note today (Monday). Last week the Census Bureau released their annual report on median household income for the US, covering 2020. Since this is the best measure to gauge housing affordability, rather than average wages or income, this is a good time to update this information. Median household...

I am sure there are better places to eat in northern Texas where the restaurant owners understand why people would want to wear a mask. Natalie Wester and her husband, Jose, went to hang out in North Dallas suburban sports bar with some friends on September 11 – LOVE BY LIFE “He (owner) added that his restaurant (pictured) is a private business and has (he) the right to refuse service to customers wearing a mask.” He said: “I’ve spent my...

Trip Notes Slept > 8-hours last night. Took off from Las Vegas, New Mexico yesterday morning and headed to Holbrook, Arizona.. If you are ever near Los Vegas NV, you might want to stay in The Plaza hotel, a blast from the past, still done up with a nineteen century interior. Bourbon was good as well as the food. Rooms comfy and styled in a similar motif as the rest of the hotel. Allan Affeldt started the restoration (more to come) of The...

CPI Rose 0.3% in August on Higher Prices for Food, Energy, New Vehicles, Furniture and Appliances; Commenter and Blogger RJS at MarketWatch 666 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Consumer Price Index: All Items for the United States [USACPIALLMINMEI], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USACPIALLMINMEI, September 19, 2021. The consumer price index rose 0.3% in...

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for September 13 – 17 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Despite the fact that Delta has been almost as bad as last winter’s wave of infections, which was the worst to date, and has been almost as bad in terms of deaths as the first wave that hit the NYC area hard, it has had almost no effect on the economy, and in particular consumer behavior. In the longer term,...

August retail sales rebound slightly, argue for continued strong jobs growth in autumn Let’s take a look at retail sales, which are perhaps my favorite monthly economic indicator, since they tell us so much about average consumer behavior, and are also a good short leading indicator for jobs.Nominally retail sales increased 0.7% for August, after a -0.6% downward revision to -1.7% for July.  Since consumer prices rose 0.3% in August, real...

And heading South out of Denver into the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. Get to “Dan” for issues and problems. More on healthcare when I settle in tonight, Doing some deeper dives into Biden’s ACA modifications, Medicare, and Jayapal’s Bill. Have to split them apart otherwise it would be as long as the opioid’s post. You should read the long Purdue – opioid post, if you have not. I layout the time line of when Purdue introduced...

Jobless claims continue in normal mid-cycle range Last week I encouraged readers to take the very low jobless claims number with a grain of salt due to Labor Day artifacts, and see if the big reduction was maintained or reversed this week. This week did indeed reverse the pattern somewhat, but not enough to interfere with the overall declining trend.Initial claims rose 20,000 to 332,000, while the 4-week average declined 4,250 to 335,750, the...

So, Whatever Happened To The Arizona Fraudit?  Even though these “audits” are now apparently spreading to other states, notably Pennsylvania and maybe Wisconsin, efforts to somehow find election fraud in the presidential elections in those states in 2020, there is an odd thing that has happened that has basically dropped off the media radar screen. That is what the outcome of the initial one of these is, the “fraudit” in Arizona, authorized and...