The Angry Bear

Keeping Fingers Crossed As US Commits To Removing Military From Afghanistan  Yes, President Biden has bitten the bullet to remove US troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack that triggered our initial entry into that nation for our longest war.  Of course, we shall not quite be fully out as not only will there still be some Marines guarding the embassy in Kabul, but probably covert CIA forces will continue to operate and...

Wealth distribution in the US continues to be a first order economic issue Tomorrow (Thursday) is one of those days when just about Every Economic Statistic in the World will be released. In the meantime, no new data today. So, while we wait, let me send you over to this article by Wolf Richter analyzing the distribution of wealth and assets in the US updated by the Fed through the end of last year. Unsurprisingly, the rich have gotten...

A few notes catching you up on stuff. I would not recommend licking the counter top as it does not taste very good. In any case, the transmission of COVID-19 does not come from touching surfaces. And I am reiterating what I had read approximately a year ago. The Atlantic‘s Staff Writer Derek Thompson reiterates what is pretty much known since the advent of COVID and ignored by many. “Deep Cleaning Isn’t a Victimless Crime” brings the point...

It was a warm October evening, back in 1957, when we heard the news and began looking anew toward the night skies. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had just launched a satellite that they called Sputnik into orbit; an event that changed the world forever. A whole new concept; actually, a couple, maybe more, new ones. Thenceforth everyone knew what a satellite was; well, most everyone. Took us awhile longer though to wrap our heads...

Monthly consumer inflation rate increases by most in 10 years; real wages decline, but real aggregate wages increase  – by New Deal democratSeasonally adjusted consumer prices rose 0.6% in March. This was the biggest single month gain since June 2009, coming out of the Great Recession: Leaving aside the pandemic, since the 1980s recessions have only happened when CPI less energy costs (red) had risen to close to or over 3%/year, usually...

Of Battenbergs, Brexit, and Brogues  So, Philip Mountbatten, born Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbutg-Glucksburg, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, and many other titles, died peacefully at age 99 on April 9 about 2 months shy of making it to 100.  I am not going to either praise him or poke at him, with his long history that contains many things on both sides of that open to judgment.  Certainly he was part of a...

What the USPS 10-year plan may have to say about future rate increases, Steve Hutkins at “Save The Post Office“ The mailers were probably disappointed that the Postal Service’s new 10-year plan released yesterday, “Delivering for America,” did not reveal how big of a rate increase the Postal Service intends to make using the new authority it was granted by the Postal Regulatory Commission. While they wait in suspense, here’s a guess: 3.6 percent....

Coronavirus dashboard for April 12: more good news, more bad news The good news is, vaccinations work.Vaccine effect in the UK: By age group: Vaccine effect in France (in the face of an increasing case count): Vaccine effect even in Chile: While confirmed cases have gone up by 100% in Chile, deaths have “only” gone up by 50%. Even employing a 4-week lag, 4 weeks ago cases had gone up 50%, while deaths are up 33%...

Congress Steadily Degenerating  I doubt this will surprise anybody, aside from those who might have hoped that Dems retaking formal control of both houses of Congress, if by narrow margins (with that margin shrinking in the House due to the 2020 election).  But I have a more direct source for this conclusion. I received a visit today from my niece and her family at our house about two hours southwest of Washington.  She is Erica Werner, a...