The Angry Bear

Flying became more expensive. The last time we flew and whether I was American Advantage or not, there still was a fee to check bags. So we checked our bags outside of the terminal as it was easier and less expensive. There was never a fee outside of the terminal. Now there was. Once American put it into play, they started to charge. It was not a big deal to us. Overall, the airlines have a monopoly. And can get away with egregious actions. If one...

 – by New Deal democrat My “quick and dirty” economic status indicator is the stock market (still making new all-time highs) and initial jobless claims, which are also still positive for the economy despite being in an apparent uptrend. Last week initial claims rose 8,000 to 229,000, their second highest level in the past 9 months. The four-week moving average declined -750 to 222,250, just below its own 9 month high of the week prior. With the...

A guide to electric car misinformation (part 2) by Emily Atkin HEATED Contrasting EVs to gas powered vehicles. And will EVs be as bad or worst that gasoline powered vehicles. And some promoters of EVs go in the opposite direction over promoting EVs or what the article calls green washing EVS. ~~~~~~~~ Financially motivated EV misinformation comes from both sides of the aisle (the lane?). Industries that see EVs as a threat exaggerate...

Traffic was moderate. I was sitting at a red light on Hathaway Avenue waiting for the light to change. It changed when I was not looking. No horns honking at me. I was slow to make my left turn on to John Wayne Parkway. Just as I was going to move, a jacked-up pickup with oversized tires blew through the red light. Like wow, if I had moved when I was supposed to, there might have been a collision. He was in the middle lane and partially hidden from...

One of the major considerations for us in where to settle when we moved to New England was being near high end health care. We lived for 40 years in St. Louis, which has multiple tertiary/quaternary care hospitals, including two academic health care centers. On the other hand, I watched as my parents, who lived for 20 years in rural upstate New York dealt with community hospitals, and when my mom was treated for multiple myeloma, she traveled four...

by Kip Sullivan Counterpoint Minnesota Kip Sullivan has been featured at Angry Bear over the years. Kip is known for his promotion of Single Payer healthcare, the costs of it and the benefits of it to healthcare providers and patients. His topic today is HMOs and how they have impacted MN hospitals. HMOs prospered through the advertisement of managed care and the benefits of it as long as it had healthier patients. Think Medicare Advantage...

– by New Deal democrat I never used to pay much attention to the ISM non-manufacturing report. That is partly because it only has a 20 year history, and partly because it seems to be more coincident than leading: But because manufacturing has faded so much as a share of the US economy, with at least two false recession signal in the past 10 years (2015-16 and 2022-23): there is no choice but to pay more attention. In particular, it...

In which I read Paul Krugman, & once again find myself arguing myself into believing that the Federal Reserve ought to have spent this spring cutting interest rates . . . by Brad Delong Grasping Reality Newsletter AB: I receive some of Brad DeLong’s commentaries in my inbox. I read them and have not posted them because I feel guilty for doing so. The commentary (which includes Paul Krugman) if read carefully agrees with what some of us...

 – by New Deal democrat I’ll write about today’s ISM non-manufacturing report later, but first I wanted to follow up with several more graphs based on yesterday’s JOLTS labor report for April. Basically, I didn’t want to leave the impression that the labor market was in any way sub-par based on those numbers. With that in mind, below are two graphs. Both show the entire history of hires (red) and quits (gold) normed to 100 as of the yesterday’s...

Another stupid climate change denialist troll trick is to point out that volcanos also emit carbon dioxide and therefore volcanos, not human activity, are the cause of the current climate change crisis. While vulcanism has shaped the climate during earth’s history, it is not a significant contributor today. Human activity-associated CO2 generation dwarfs volcanos. Again, Google is your friend:“Volcanic eruptions are often discussed in the context of...