The Angry Bear

Good Old Days? A story . . . I was at Parker-Hannifin Fluid Power for a bit over 4-years. Due to the economic slowdown in 1982, they let me go. I was replaced by someone out of sales. The explanation? His wanting to learn about manufacturing hydraulic and air cylinders. It was obvious he was losing his job in Sales. My boss came out of Sales and knew little about production planning and control. Over 4 years I made him look good by cutting inventory...

By Infidel753 Infidel753 By traditional assessment, in a US election year, early September is when the broad American public starts turning its attention to the choice looming in early November.  To those readers blessed to live in normal countries, where campaigning is limited by law to just three or four weeks before an election, a two-month political season probably seems absurdly long — but I can assure you, the media and parties...

-by New Deal democrat The monthly personal income and spending report is now the most important report of all, except for jobs. That’s becuase it tells us so much about the state of the consumer economy. It is the raw material for several important coincident indicators that the NBER looks at, as well as several leading indicators on the spending side. And to put this month’s report into the perspective of the imminent baseball postseason, it...

I recently retired after working for the same employer for 37 years. My dad also worked ca. 35 years for his employer before retiring, as did my father-in-law. My sister worked for her employer for 40 years. Two of my sisters-in-law worked for their only employer for about that long. My daughter, on the other hand, is on her 4th employer since finishing law school ten years ago. Most folks switch jobs several times during their working years....

but not enough for everyone.” A partial taken from The Conversation on Drug Prices The impact of the drug negotiations has been modest at best. There is a lot of talk and hurrahs. The results are not there yet. When I go to the outside for care, the VA pays the doctors at a minimum. If they want VA patients, them they accept minimal payments. If the VA disappeared those minimal payments would disappear. Like healthcare, pharmaceuticals are...

I would like to use Veteran Healthcare. However, the backlog is months out. So, I go to the outside for care. It is not that I want to do so. The VA has been short of staff for a while now. Much of this is a concerted effort to kick us out into public care. The present head a holdover from the Trump Admin. has not been doing much to staff the VA. This last go-around for my spine was a disaster. I met the surgeon who was good. She decided it might...

– by New Deal democrat I’ve been writing for the past number of weeks that we were approaching the acid test for the hypothesis that unresolved post-pandemic seasonality explained the sharp increase in jobless claims in the summer. This week we are fully immersed in the 6+ month comparison period where initial claims in the past two years averaged between 200,000-220,000. So, first the good news: initial claims declined -4,000 to 218,000, to...

Looking at business firms by age, what type of firms create jobs, and in what industry. In manufacturing, it would be older firms (eleven years or older) creating the most jobs. Older firms of eleven or more years are also creating more jobs in Retail. As we look at each category, older firms play a distinct role in job creation. The only time we see a distinct difference is in Accommodations where start-ups and one- to five-year-old firms have an...

Louis DeJoy, the Trump-appointed head of the United States Postal Service (USPS), is screwing with the 2024 election. His failure could impact the outcome of a close election. If it is close. With the help of a former NC postmaster and Steve Hutkins of Save the Post Office, we have been tracking the lack of progress with the USPS. Keep in mind, the USPS goal is to deliver mail to every segment of the population, no matter where they live, and on a...

Excellent reporting by Motor Trend revealing how a new tech radio gives you music and can also eaves-drop on you. The result of eaves dropping is to schedule commercials that may appeal to your interests. The radio then will program commercial ads that may suit your interests. Maybe by introducing something new? What do you think? Can you be persuaded by your radio pitching an ad for a new car after hearing you discuss cars with a passenger? A...