The Angry Bear

Are Former Professors As National Leaders More Prone To Black Swan Events That Overthrow Their Governments?  Probably not, but recent events in Afghanistan suggest an example.  This would be the sudden departure just over two weeks ago on Aug. 15 from Kabul of then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which triggered the sudden collapse of his government and the unexpectedly sudden takeover of Kabul by the Taliban. Even they did not see this coming. ...

This is one of the great truths of politics, one that political actors exploit for advantage or ignore at their peril. Suppose that there is a moral norm against littering in your neighborhood.  You support the norm even when it is not convenient for you to do so.  When someone litters, you could be upset simply because littering is harmful (the pure utilitarian attitude), or you could be upset that they are getting an unfair advantage by breaking...

July personal income and spending return to normalcy. Normalcy is good How well personal income and spending held up throughout the pandemic is one of the best things about the government response. That has continued to be the case as of this morning’s report for July. Real personal income (blue) increased 0.7%, and is 4.2% above where it was in February 2020. Real personal spending (red) decreased -0.1%, but is still 2.7% above its...

Physician signing bonuses reach $240,000, ASCs promote long term ROI (beckersasc.com) While the median physician signing bonus was $29,656, physicians on the high end of the spectrum were offered $240,000 or more. While signing bonuses at the high end of the spectrum were around $140,000 more than they were in 2019-20, they were down from the 2015-16 high of $350,000. Hospitals often are able to provide large signing bonuses, while physicians...

2nd Quarter GDP Revised to Indicate Growth at a 6.6% Rate The Second Estimate of our 2nd Quarter GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis indicated that our real output of goods and services grew at a 6.6% rate during the quarter, revised from the 6.5% growth rate reported in the advance estimate last month, as growth in fixed investment and exports was greater than previously estimated, while imports increased less than originally estimated, the...

Prof. Linda Eissenberg, Ph.D., is a scientist at Washington University School of Medicine who spent more than two decades studying microbial pathogens. She now works in oncology as an assistant professor of internal medicine. “Why washing your hands and social distancing works”, St. Louis Post – Dispatch, Apr 4, 2020 What you really need to know during this pandemic is how risky different behaviors are. Although I’m not a public health worker,...

Commenter and Blogger RJS, MarketWatch 666, Industrial Production Rose 0.9% in July After Prior Four Months Were Revised Higher The Fed’s G17 release on Industrial production and Capacity Utilization for July indicated that industrial production rose by 0.9% in July after rising by a revised 0.2% in June and a revised 0.8% in May, and is now up 6.6% from a year ago . . . the industrial production index, with the benchmark now set for average...

Colored transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus particles. Credit: National Infection Service/SCI.Commenter and blogger, Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  In the unceasing effort by the Right to politicize and weaponize the COVID-19 pandemic, some politicians have seized on a recent paper from Israel claiming that natural infection provides better protection than two doses of the Pfizer vaccine....

July Durable Goods: New Orders Down 0.1%, Shipments Up 2.2%, Inventories Up 0.6%, Commenter and also Blogger at MarketWatch 666 The Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for July (pdf) from the Census Bureau reported the value of the widely watched new orders for manufactured durable goods fell by $0.4 billion or by 0.1 percent to $246.9 billion in July, following a revised increase of 0.8% to $257.6...