The Angry Bear

by Chris Dall University Minnesota.edu “ambient air pollution and heightened antibiotic use” A new study by Spanish researchers suggests that short-term exposure to air pollution may be tied to increased antibiotic use in people experiencing respiratory symptoms. The study, was published in JAMA Network Open, found that increases of daily ambient air pollution in 11 Spanish cities over 7 years were associated with increased antibiotic...

 – by New Deal democrat Today, New Deal democrat offers a Big Picture hypothesis. This is Housing Week, but there is no significant data today, and I’m going to wait for new home sales to be reported on Wednesday before commenting on how existing home sales fit in. In the meantime, let me unpack a Big Picture look. Since the Fed began actively managing interest rates over 60 years ago, expansions and recessions have followed a typical...

Big Pharma has become a familiar whipping boy in the debate over healthcare costs. CAR-T therapies to treat certain cancers, for example, can cost between half a million and a million dollars for a single treatment course. What’s the prospect of a cancer cure worth to you?GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are transforming the lives of obese patients. For most people, these drugs will have...

Trumps Court Cases an Update by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse Just so you know, I am not kidding. This reads as a soap opera. Poor Trump so many issue . . . Full time subscriber to Civil Discourse. Hope ou enjoy his reading of he issues, ~~~~~~~ This week, two very important Legal World developments will take place. The first is a Mississippi case that could end up having a national impact. On Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of...

by Steve Hutkins Save the Post Office In 2020, when the United States Postal Service began an ambitious plan to modernize and consolidate services in the middle of the pandemic. Its slow service wound up disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters whose ballots never made it to their elections offices in time. Four years later – by some measures – USPS performance is now actually worse, with another nail-biter of an election...

Commenter Jane on the News Media Lying to the Public Commentary I know that things cost more now.  Much of that has nothing to do with what the federal government does or does not do.  The government did not force suppliers to raise their profit percentages when their costs went up, that was just greed seizing an opportunity.  Much of the supply chain problem started overseas, with Covid.  Not even Trump’s fault.   It certainly wasn’t the fault...

I think the title makes it clear that this will be a rambling confused post. I am typing on with the thought that something is better than nothing and no one has to read this. The first topic – house prices, is in fact one that interests me a lot. I have a regression which suggests that a high ratio of house prices to the general price level is terrible news, because it indicates a housing bubble which will burst and be followed by a prolonged...

by Bill Gale EconoFact The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the most sweeping realignment of the U.S. tax code in over three decades. It lowered tax rates, simplified taxes, raised the government debt, and was regressive, benefitting people who are well off more than the middle-class and the poor. Many provisions of the TCJA expire in 2025 unless action is preserves them. What would the expiration, or the continuation, of these...

As I posted yesterday, Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of the Medicare-eligible population, is a rip-off for taxpayers and for policy holders. Apparently, this is finally sinking in for hospitals and health systems across the country:“In 2023, Becker’s began reporting on hospitals and health systems nationwide that dropped some or all of their Medicare Advantage contracts.“Data on this topic is limited. In January, the Healthcare...

An excellent take on taxing the Black poor and the poor in general. It and its attachments are a good read which is why it is here. Taken from an advertisement. Tell the House and Senate: It’s time to make our tax code more equitable. The racial wealth gap has become wider during the past couple of decades. Significant economic events such as the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically shifted wealth towards the well-off....