The Angry Bear

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842 The red death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal — the madness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid...

September jobs report: a drastic slowdown in improvement, but further demonstrating an economy that *wants* to get better HEADLINES: 661,000 million jobs gained. The gains since May total a little over half of the 22.1 million job losses in March and April. The alternate, and more volatile measure in the household report was 275,000 jobs gained, which factors into the unemployment and underemployment rates below. U3 unemployment rate fell -0.5% from 8.4%...

What is this that we call history? What is it good for? History is: a chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes, a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events, the study of the past, …, the past in context. History is all these things. What is missing from ‘a chronological record of significant events’? History without context is meaningless....

 by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for September 28 – October 2 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. Almost all of the indicators across all time frames are well off their worst levels. The question now is becoming whether or not they will stall out or reverse. As usual, clicking over and reading should be educational for you, and rewards me just a little bit for my efforts. ...

Happy Every Economic Statistic in the World Day! 4. Manufacturing continued to expand strongly in September This morning’s final economic report is the ISM manufacturing index for September. This is a short leading indicator, and the new orders subindex specifically is one of the 10 components of the Index of Leading Indicators. A neutral reading is 50. The overall index came in at 55.4, and the new orders subindex came in at 60.2: So while the...

Happy Every Economic Statistic in the World Day! 3. Private residential construction spending improves smartly This morning’s third economic release is August construction spending. I track this because it is part of the important long leading housing sector. While it isn’t nearly as leading as housing permits or starts, it is the least volatile of all of the data. And the news was good, in particular for private residential construction spending,...

Happy Every Economic Statistic in the World Day! 1. Jobless claims continue making glacial progress 1. Jobless claims Another week of glacial progress in initial jobless claims, at levels worse than the worst weekly levels of the Great Recession. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, new jobless claims fell by -40,263 to 786,942. After seasonal adjustment (which is far less important than usual at this time), claims fell by -36,000 to 837,000, another new...

The court is reversing many of the Civil Rights advances and gains (health care, labor protections, and antidiscrimination in public accommodations, etc.) for LGBTQ, women, etc. on the basis that such protections violates a religion’s practices. In essence legal protections for individuals, workers, etc. seeking to engage in ordinary commercial activity are subordinated to a religious belief. I watched such in action at a County Commission meeting as...

Prof. Steve Hutkins at Save the Post Office adds information on court rulings. The Postal Service is now 0 and 5 in the eleven lawsuits filed against it as a result of the mail delays caused by the operational changes that went into effect in July. Yesterday two more orders were against the Postal Service. In Pennsylvania v DeJoy, Judge Gerald McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Postal Service can’t restrict extra or late trips...