The Angry Bear

Commenter and blogger, Professor Joel Eissenberg, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University. Introduction: “A group of clinicians and researchers is petitioning the FDA to delay fully approval of any COVID-19 vaccines before clinical trials have been completed, calling the notion of approval to stimulate vaccination rates ‘backward logic.’ The group, led by Linda Wastila, BSPharm, MSPH, PhD, professor of...

 – by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for June 7 – 11 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Despite the spike in consumer prices in May, long term interest rates like in mortgages declined, largely taking back the increase that occurred earlier this year. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the moment, and bring me a penny or two for my efforts....

The spike in inflation is not a concern – yet By now you’ve probably already read a fair amount of commentary on yesterday’s consumer inflation report for May. I’m going to cut to the chase as to my take right off the bat: 1. The primary driver of this inflationary spike is supply bottlenecks rather than increased demand.2. The inflationary spike has wiped out any “real” wage gains during the past 10 months.3. The inflationary spike is not...

What are we talking about here? Federal Reserve is taking an initial step towards launching its own virtual currency. The move is disturbing to banks as it gives millions of low-income Americans access to the financial system and fortifies the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. The rise of private cryptocurrencies is motivating the Fed to start considering a digital dollar to be used alongside the traditional paper currency. The...

I am wondering about Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data. The reason is that I am interested in the extremely record high job vacancy rate of 6%, the moderately high unemployment rate of 5.8% and the moderately high hiring rate of 4.2% of employment in April (last month of data available). There are reports of firms having trouble finding workers, including the results of systematic surveys. Republican governors have decided to...

CPI Rose 0.6% in May on Higher Prices for New and Used Vehicles, Clothing, and Airfares; Now Up 5% Year over Year, MarketWatch666, Commenter RJS The consumer price index rose 0.6% in May, as higher prices for new and used vehicles, clothing, airfares, car and truck rentals, and utilities were only slightly offset by lower prices for gasoline and for health insurance…the Consumer Price Index Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated...

Sharing the truth while speaking to a 100% white and 70% male GOP Pennsylvania legislature body and telling them what is more important. PA Representative Brian Sims takes on the Republican majority in the state House. PA Rep. Brian Sims: “Your boos mean nothing to me as I’ve heard for what you cheer. We are a legislature that has met more times to remove mask mandates, strip executive emergency powers, and overturn free and fair elections than we...

Coronavirus dashboard for June 9: the high correlation between partisan lean, vaccination rates, and new cases No big economic news today, so I wanted to follow up on Monday’s post, in which I described the correlation between the number of new COVID cases and States in which there were high vaccination rates vs. ones with low rates. The both sad and maddening point is, vaccination rates correlate strongly with partisan lean, and so do the present...

Global Polls OK, so I think the nations surveyed are biased, but I have now seen two polls with roughly similar polls.   So Pew, with a larger base and solid credibility has that among foreign nations polls in their nations data set showed an improvement in favorability rating for the POTUS have gone from 17% to 75% give or take a few percents. OTOH, the attitude towards the US among whichever nations Pew polled had the attitude towards the US...