The Angry Bear

Has Elon Musk Damaged His Portfolio By Buying Bitcoin?  After tweeting repeatedly for some time about bitcoin and the originally satirical degecoin, both of which have gone up massively in the past year, on Feb. 8 Elon Musk put his money where his mouth had been and had his Tesla EV company buy about $1.5 billion in bitcoin.  The immediate aftermath of this was a substantial surge of the crypto from somewhat over $40,000 to somewhat over...

It isn’t that no one cares what you think, they probably don’t, it is that what you think doesn’t really matter. Chances are that what you think, you didn’t; didn’t think that is. Even if you did, it doesn’t matter because facts are facts, and facts don’t care. Facts just are. Feel free to think, to opine, about the unknown, to believe what you want, but facts are reality and can be known. Facts couldn’t care less what you learned at mother’s, or...

Coronavirus dashboard for February 23: vaccinations start to have a dramatic effect Totals US deaths, Cases, vaccinated one dose and two doses: – Coronavirus confirmed deaths: 500,310 – Confirmed infections: 28,190,159 – One Dose vaccinations: 44,138,118, and – Two Dose vaccinations: 19,438,495. The good news is, roughly 9.5% of the US population age 18 or over has received both doses of a vaccine. Over 20% has received at least...

Commenter and writer RJS describes himself as “unencumbered by education, affiliations, beliefs or agenda and im not advocating anything.” Market Watch 666 The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 1.3% in January, as prices for finished wholesale goods were on average 1.4% higher, while margins of final services providers increased by 1.3%  .  .  .  that followed a revised December report that now shows the PPI was...

Strength in housing and cars, oh my! The two consumer goods which turn down before recessions, and up before recoveries, are houses and motor vehicles, in that order.Since January housing permits and starts came out yesterday, let’s take a look at both. First, while housing starts retreated slightly from their December levels, the more leading and less volatile permits, and the even less volatile single family permits, both made new 14 year...

Tags: open thread

You’re reading the right blog: 2021 economy edition “You’re reading the right blog” is an old chestnut (for me anyway) that I used to say from time to time to highlight a correct forecast that your (not so?) humble blogger made well in advance of more widely read sources.Well, please bear with me for one more self-pat on the back. For at least 6 months, I have been saying that the economy was poised to pick up strongly in 2021 once the pandemic...

 On the last day it could, the Trump State Department officially declared that the Peoples’ Republic of China is committing “genocide” in Xinjiang Province against the mostly Sunni Muslin Uighr minority, the previously dominant group in the province. New SecState Antony Blinken has publicly stated that he agrees with this judgment.  However, reportedly the State Department is reviewing this decision, as it is doing with many other parts of US foreign...

I thought readers would enjoy the following two interviews. The first is with Mary Anne Franks: The Cult of the Constitution. The discussion is titled: Rethinking the Constitution. She gets into the first and second amendment. What I found thoughtful was her presentation of the Constitution being viewed as a sacred document. Think the Bible etc. Considering the influence of the Evangelical Right in the Republican party, it put clarity to the...

 The Biden admin has not yet made moves to undo elements of Trump’s trade war, and some parts of it may not get undone, perhaps especially some directed at China.  But at least one move towards normalization with the rest of the world has just happened as the Biden admin has agreed to let the individual nominated to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO) take office. This is Ngosi Okunjo-Iweala, not only a woman, but a former Finance Minister from...