The Angry Bear

[embedded content]Relax a Little Bit

(Abbreviated) coronavirus dashboard for March 29 – by New Deal democrat Here is the update through yesterday (March 28) [NOTE: I am not including the State by State breakdown today, which is time-intensive to create. It will resume tomorrow.] In order to succeed in containing the pandemic, I believe that the US needs 2 weeks of China (nearly complete lockdown) followed by at least a month of South Korea (very aggressive and widespread testing). At...

The Covid-19 pandemic is the physical manifestation of a deeper disease plaguing the West: Class Warfare. The veil has been lifted. Social distancing, a legitimate response to Covid-19, predominately affects the working class. Fortunately, Covid-19 is an equal opportunity plague: As the rich and powerful congratulated each other, as they moved among the rightfully adoring crowds…oops, I think I caught something! Just hazards of the games they play....

The Mankiw CV Plan Greg Mankiw has posted a suggestion for delivering money to people that targets the benefit to those who need it the most.  The idea is clever: 1. Pay people the benefit B.  (This could be spread over many weeks or months.)  Everyone gets the same B. 2. Next year at tax time, compute the ratio r Y(2020)/Y(2019), the ratio of each filer’s 2020 income, net of B, to their 2019 income and capped at 1.  Impose a surcharge of rB on tax...

Brace yourselves: the US is setting up a ghastly “natural experiment” – by New Deal democrat When I began my “Coronavirus Dashboard,” I was hopeful that it would document the slow progress towards turning a bad situation around, and the ultimate tamping down of the pandemic. Surely increasingly intense and overwhelming public pressure would force a critical mass of government officials to do what was necessary? Now I am not so sure. The number of cases...

Weekly Indicators for March 23 – 27 at Seeking Alpha by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. As you might expect, almost all of the “hard” indicators have crashed. What sticks out is that consumer spending, as measured by chain store sales, has not – even though one week ago the coronavirus restrictions were very much in place in many regions. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you thoroughly up to date. It also...

The Covid-19 epidemic is creating a painful dilemma for policymakers.  On the one hand, we need to practice social distancing to keep people healthy and to prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed.  Unfortunately, this strategy is causing a severe economic contraction as people avoid contact with others. An ideal response to this dilemma would have three basic components.  First, we would implement a hard, nation-wide lockdown to slow the spread of...

Alan Collinge of the Student Loan Justice Org. has a petition supporting the cancellation of Student Loan Debt. If we can bail out corporations again, why not bailing out people with excessive student loan debt? The student loan justice.org is counting on you and needs your help with “President Trump: Cancel Student Loans NOW.”  Join student loan justice.org and the 116,064 signers of the petition calling for President Trump to cancel student loan debt....

Coronavirus dashboard for March 28: testing falls further behind- by New Deal democrat Here is the update through yesterday (March 27) In order to succeed in containing the pandemic, I believe that the US needs 2 weeks of China (nearly complete lockdown) followed by at least a month of South Korea (very aggressive and widespread testing). At minimum, that means at least 50% of the US population under lockdown and a ratio of 15:1 in tests to results...