The Angry Bear

The real story revealed by the New York Times Trump tax returns bombshell is not that Donald Trump paid no taxes in 10 out of 15 years or that he paid $750 in 2016 and 2017. The real story is that he doesn’t have net income to service his debt. There is nothing inherently illegal about that. He did it before in the 1980s and when real estate prices stopped rising in 1990, his creditors were left holding the bag. Hyman Minsky wrote about Donald Trump’s...

– by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for September 21 – 25 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. While the underlying economic data still looks positive, the possibility for disruption based on a full-blown Constitutional Crisis following the election can no longer be overlooked. As usual, clicking over and reading should bring you right up to the moment about the economy, and reward me a little bit for the work I do...

I had written on the high cost of pharmaceuticals late 2019, “Another Look at Drug Pricing, Costs, and Why” citing from the World Health Organization, the ICER, JAMA Network, Health Affairs, and my own posts (links below and in text). You will find the some of the same articles cited in new commentary of increased drug costs in the Washington Post, Kaiser Health News, and Medpage Today. It appears the three of them have caught up with Angry Bear’s...

Prof. Steve Hutkins at Save the Post Office The plaintiffs in Jones have reached an agreement with the Postal Service that settles the case for now. The outline of the agreement is similar to the commitments in the Sept. 24 Standup Talk on Election Mail, but there are some more specific details. The agreement states the following (the rest is quoted from the proposed order): The USPS shall, to the extent that excess capacity permits, treat all Election...

I stumbled across this article at Electoral-Vote .com.  They have a chart showing the control of the Secretary of States, Legislatures and Executive offices.   They combine that with the current polling in each state and electoral votes.  Their conclusion, more than hell would have to freeze over for Trump and the Atlantic’s article warning of a post election electoral steal to happen. We have addressed many of the concerns that Davis and Gellman raise,...

In the 19th century, employers stove off employee demands by bringing in immigrants willing to work under existing conditions. In the 20th Century, consequent the Great Depression, prohibition of child labor, immigration reform, … it was no longer so easy for employers to ignore workers demands. Unions took root and membership grew and so did the workers’ wages and benefits; welcome: the end of child labor, the 40 hour week, living wages, and paid...

[embedded content]In a face off with Republican candidate Paul Junge, Congresswoman Slotkin lets Paul Junge know Republicans must have a healthcare plan as they don’t. In this clip she gives her personal story about her mom having cancer and being unable to get insurance at a reasonable cost or not at all. There are many more like Ms. Slotkin’s mom in the same category who are winging it so to speak. I for one was faced with the same dilemma from time to...

I would like to propose a set of questions for the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings. I would ask about her interview with Donald Trump. 1) in the interview, did the president talk about himself at all ? Both answers are costly. We all know he did (he always does) so to answer no is to blatantly like. A yes answer leads to following questions (which I would ask in any case). Barrett will refuse to answer, saying the conversation should be private....

Polls vs Polls plus. Rule number 1 of forecasting is do not quarrel with fivethirtyeight.com Rule number 538 is not ever. So here I go. I am going to start with the fivethirtyeight Senate forecast(s). (s) because there are three and an “pick a model” icon to toggle them. I like the “lite” just polls forecast. I like it because it estimates a 70% probability of a Democratic majority, while the “Classic” “polls, fundraising, past voting patterns and more”...