The Angry Bear

 – by New Deal democrat Personal income and spending, in addition to the jobs report, has become one of the most important monthly reports I follow, mainly because I am looking for signs that the contractionary effects of Fed tightening are finally taking effect. To cut to the chase, this month’s report was mainly positive, but had a few cautionary signs.  To reiterate from last month: because real personal spending on services for the past 50...

I came of age scientifically at the beginning of the cloning era. As various genes associated with human genetic disorders—sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s—were cloned, the papers reporting these successes always ended with some statement that now the door was open to therapy. These prophecies proved to be wildly optimistic. Now, with the advent of CRISPR gene editing, it is becoming possible to realize the...

The long term effect of the debate may be small, but the race is at best a tie, and I just don’t see how Biden can turn it around.  I’m not saying he should drop out or that his candidacy is doomed.  He still may be the Dems best bet.  Maybe the outcry about his performance will blow over, the case against Trump will become clearer, and wandering Democrats will return to the fold.  But Biden was not making much progress in the run up to the debate. ...

After listening to trump about improving the environment, I decided to look it up. It is pretty easy to look up factual evidence. Well, here they are, the answer to another polished trump lie. This list of trump’s accomplishments comes from the NY Times. The date of this updated list is Jan. 20, 2021. It was not done recently to refute the trump candidacy in 2024. It is a report on what the trump administration he selected did during his first...

Book proposal: Marx’s Fetters and the Realm of Freedom: a remedial reading — part 2.9 by Tom Walker Econospeak Framing the revolution as being about disposable time brings Marx closer to Walter Benjamin’s remark about revolution being “the act by which the human race traveling in the train applies the emergency brake.” Benjamin’s “On the concept of history” was composed in the wake of Benjamin’s despair at the Hitler-Stalin pact that sealed...

I have been writing on the Opioid epidemic for years. I was asked to write on it by some organizations. SCOTUS tossing the settlement may be due to the settlement releasing the Sacklers from any liability in promotion and the sale of Oxycontin, etc. Supreme Court tosses opioid settlement worth billions for states, victims, USA TODAY and also at MSN. Quick Note: For the settlement worth $billions, there was also a release of liability for the...

Imagine that Congress wants to address some social or economic problem by prohibiting certain undesirable acts.  One approach Congress can take is to specifically describe the undesirable behavior and prohibit it.  This approach sometimes works well – it is the basis of traditional criminal law – but it has two great disadvantages.  First, in many fields – like drug regulation and pollution control – Congress lacks the expertise to identify which...

 – by New Deal democrat One item I meant to address with this week’s existing and new home sales data was the relative difference in price in the two, and the effect on the relative share of the market.  I am following up now because yesterday Kevin Drum put up a post yesterday in which he concluded that “The price of a new house is now below its pre-pandemic trendline and heading toward its 2020 level . . . When the Fed finally gets around to...

I am the recipient of Robert Reich’s commentaries which I have posted here on occasion. Mostly, this is to introduce other information which may differ than mine, to seek comments from people who read it, and to seek on topic comments here. It may seem like we are grouchy at times. Much of which is due to when some wander off topic or take other liberties which we may frown upon. The latest . . . The taxing difference by Robert Reich...

By Daniel Bergstresser Econofact Second of two commentaries on Government Debt. This commentary does mention tax policies since 2000 which reduced revenue. The latest passed in 2017 as advocated by trump and supported by Congress. It passed under Reconciliation. The failure to balance out the debt created by the tax reduction with revenue achieved through economic growth will force a repeal of it. Here, the author discusses the dreag on...