The Angry Bear

Socially Ambivalent Labour Time XIV: Capital volume III, chapters 38 and 49 I thought this was going to be the final instalment of my review of Marx’s writing on socially necessary labour time but then I discovered, as I was going through my posts that I haven’t done the draft “chapter six” that contains the fascinating discussion of formal and real subsumption. So there will be either one or two mores posts. Yay!! An index page of all the...

Oil in longest losing streak since 2019;  global oil shortage at 2,540,000 barrels per day; DUC well backlog at 7.1 months, Focus on Fracking, Commenter and Blogger, R,J.S. Thursday of last week saw the release of OPEC’s August Oil Market Report, which covers OPEC & global oil data for July, and hence it gives us a picture of the global oil supply & demand situation for the third month of the modest output easing policy initiated by OPEC...

As others have said in print and in the Fox broadcasts; “everything is going terrible.” Yeah kinda, there are issues. I do not believe anyone thought about the rapid collapse of Afghanistan happening. The die was cast when Trump and Pompeo bumbled their way through conversations with the Taliban. Someone was laughing afterwards. In spite of the collapse, the abandonment of Afghanistan is going rather well. As Kevin mentions the bloodshed is...

As Taken from Modern Healthcare: Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare Scientists believe President Biden is jumping the gun by claiming people should be seeking a third shot, a booster shot of Covid vaccine. I am not sure which scientists the Modern Healthcare article is referring to; but, there are a bunch of doctors appearing to have issues with Biden’s booster plan. The issues require answering. Director...

Erik Loomis points to this AP story on ShotSpotter, a system that police and prosecutors use to identify gunshots, react to potential crimes, and prosecute suspects. The AP story raises serious questions about the accuracy and integrity of the system. You can click through for their story, which is gripping and definitely worth a read. The ShotSpotter story reminded me of an experience I had as a juror several years ago. The charges in the case...

A note on existing home sales Existing home sales are the least noteworthy of the housing data, because of the very limited economic activity moving into or out of an existing home provokes compared with the construction, furnishing, and landscaping of a new home. But it’s worth a brief look, so let’s note this month’s report. Existing home sales (blue in the graph below) are only up 1.7% compared with one year ago, as opposed to new...

July industrial production (good news) and retail sales (bad news still being pretty good news)  – by New Deal democrat This morning brought the July report for the King of Coincident Indicators, industrial production, as well as one of my favorite consumer side indicators, retail sales. Let’s take a look at each. Industrial sales increased strongly in July, up 0.9% overall, and the manufacturing component up 1.4%. Manufacturing production...

Retail Sales Fell 1.1% in July After May and June Sales were Revised Higher, R.J.S, MarketWatch 666 Seasonally adjusted retail sales were 1.1% lower in July after retail sales for May and June were revised higher . . . the Advance Retail Sales Report for July (pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that our seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales totaled $617.7 billion during the month, which was 1.1 percent (± 0.5 percent) less than...

Evonomic’s contributor Jag Bhalla offers his narrative of how the vaccine choices played out in the US and looks to continue along the same lines with the booster shots for Covid 19 in Vaccine Greed: Capitalism Without Competition Isn’t Capitalism, It’s Exploitation. DID GREED JUST save the day? That’s what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed recently. “The reason we have the vaccine success,” he said in a private call to Conservative...