The Angry Bear

Real average and aggregate wage growth for July 2019: yellow flag for aggregate wages Now that we have the July inflation reading, let’s take a look at real wages. First of all, nominal average hourly wages in June increased +0.2%, while consumer prices increased +0.3%, meaning real average hourly wages for non-managerial personnel decreased -0.1%. This results in a slight decline of real wages to 97.0% of their all time high in January 1973: On a...

by New Deal democrat My preliminary long leading forecast through midyear 2020 This post is up at Seeking Alpha. This is my first look at economic conditions into next summer. I suspect that it is contrary to most punditry that you will read. In any event, as usual clicking over and reading helps reward me for the effort I put in to this endeavor.

When remembered at all, Edward Abbey is mostly thought of as an environmentalist and anarchist but there is no gainsaying the racism and xenophobia on display in his 1983 essay, “Immigration and Liberal Taboos.” The opinion piece was originally solicited by the New York Times, which ultimately declined to publish it — or to pay him the customary kill fee. It was subsequently rejected by Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Newsweek,...

So there wasn’t the groundswell of interest in my old axes in comments, so all continued grinding after the jump. Just to recall I stopped after 3 on a list which continued 4) John Kerry is much too stubborn. He won’t admit it when he is wrong. He should be more willing flip flop 5) Al Gore is a bearer of inconvenient truths who deserves much of the credit (or blame) for the existence of the internet 6) Bill Clinton is an ultra wonk who is relatively...

There are too many guns in the USA. If you don’t agree, no need to bother reading on. The market oriented solution is obvious, has no Constitutional problems, and is simple. 1) tax gun production and imports. They don’t grow on trees. A tax of $ 5000 per gun would be useful. Better a higher tax on semi-automatics and a lower tax on shot guns. I don’t give a damn about the risk of depriving poor people of an easy way to kill themselves and each other....

This post is self therapy and probably not worth your time. Outline before the Jump 1) Hillary Clinton is very honest. Too honest 2) Mitt Romney is extremely dishonest. He lies often and without shame. Also he made his money conning ex friends. 3) John McCain was a major flip-flopper 4) John Kerry is much too stubborn. He won’t admit it when he is wrong. He should be more willing flip flop 5) Al Gore is a bearer of inconvenient truths who deserves much...

Lloyd Alter at treehuggers: The only thing that really works for recycling is full producer responsibility. If a producer sells a product, the container is theirs and the contents belong to the customer. This is how it used to work with beer, pop, milk, water for the water cooler, and it is what consumers and producers have to get back to achieve zero waste and a circular economy. California has a long history of calling for deposits on both PET plastic,...

Commom Dreams, Jake Johnson, August 6th, GateHouse Media announced it will purchase Gannett (USA Today, Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, and other major American newspapers). GateHouse Media publishes 144 daily newspapers, 684 community publications, and over 569 local-market websites in 38 states. If approved the result will be a $1.4 billion news conglomerate. Common Cause stated a “combined GateHouse-Gannett entity would own one in every six...

by New Deal democrat Q2 Credit conditions were decidedly mixed Credit conditions are one of my categories of long leading indicators. I track the Chicago indexes weekly, but the more comprehensive Senior Loan Officer Survey only comes out once per quarter. The 2nd Quarter Survey was published earlier this week. I have a post describing what it shows up at Seeking Alpha. As usual, clicking on the link at reading should give you good information, and...