The Angry Bear

Jobs Report Not Really All That Surprising I am a bit taken aback at how shocked so many are about the new jobs report showing that net hiring in May was positive.  For regular readers here I have made several posts here noting that the US economy was almost certainly growing, probably for at least a month. The most recent was my one a few days ago on Rising Oil Demand, and an earlier one, where I was vaguer about the US economy, was the one on Rising...

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for June 1 – 5 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The interest rate-sensitive long leading indicators largely turned positive as soon as the coronavirus crisis hit. As lockdowns have eased, several of the short leading indicators have also now turned – or at least are a lot less awful. If the easing up and/or the huge protests result in a surge of new coronavirus cases, that could...

Global Oil Demand Rises Back on April 20 we saw briefly the bizarre appearance of negative oil prices in certain markets. Today for the first time in many months Brent crude briefly topped $40 per barrel, although it fell back below that level (WTI is tending to be about $3 behind it, despite a single day recently when for the first time in years it nearly matched Brent crude at only 18 cents lower). However, it looks like the recent trend of global oil...

The 2.5 million employment gain does not look too impressive from this perspective.

“Ryan is looking down right now, and you know that, and he is very happy, because I think he just broke a record.” “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” Trump’s cynical invoking of George Floyd yesterday has a history that explains what he imagined he was doing. In the first week after his inauguration, Trump approved a Navy Seal raid on suspected positions of al Queda in the...

I saw the first pic on Hullabaloo and I pulled a second pick from Google. The first pic looks remarkedly like General Flynn. Digsby has an article up called “More of this, please” from where the first picture came of a protestor to Trump’s visit to Maine. The look-a-like Flynn is protesting Trump’s visit to Maine. Do you agree on the similarity? Agree???

In 1972, Professor and Psychologist Walter Mischel at Stanford University set into play a study on delayed gratification using children. A child was offered a choice between one immediate reward or two small rewards if they waited for a period of time. During this time after the announcement of a reward, the researcher left the room for ~15 minutes and then returned. The reward was either a marshmallow or pretzel stick dependent upon the child’s...

If only it were so simple by Ken Melvin The covid-19 pandemic has been difficult to get a handle on; so much unknown, everyday so much new info. It will probably take years for the world to fully to understand all that the 2020 covid-19 pandemic entailed. The George Floyd protests are all too familiar. The gut wrenching images from Minneapolis angered the nation. I don’t know what it’s like to be black in America; don’t feel that I have the right to...

From Cato: 79% of Americans support having outside law enforcement agencies investigate police misconduct, rather than leave it to the department to handle. It may surprise some readers to learn that most jurisdictions in the U.S. allow police departments to investigate and discipline their own officers. Instead, most Americans think having some outside oversight could enhance accountability. Majorities across racial groups support this: 81% of whites,...