The Angry Bear

This sets the tone in Michigan as the richest Republican controlled County of Livingston continues its attack on women along with the State of Michigan House and Senate using a petition to pass a veto-proof law limiting abortion without putting it forward on a ballot initiative. A tyranny of a minority imposing its will upon others. “By Trump-era standards, Ebenezer Scrooge was a nice guy. It’s common, especially around this time of year, to describe...

American hero John Lewis has Pancreatic Cancer. He should look at these two studies of the only treatment that has actually worked and a similar treatment. Also read this article in The Lancet. and in particular “Of the 18 patients given the maximum tolerated dose, 11 (61%) achieved an objective (complete or partial) response.” American heroine Ruth Bader Ginsburg might also be interested if she has a relapse. ...

A response to Kevin Drum: for wages and inflation, it’s all about the price of gas Last week Kevin Drum had the following inquiry: [H]ow is it that wages can go up but overall inflation remains so subdued? That seems to be the real disconnect here. During the dotcom boom, wages went up but inflation remained around 3 percent. During the housing bubble, wages didn’t go up and inflation remained around 3-4 percent. Right now, wages are going up but...

Steve Hutchins, a literature professor who teaches “place studies” at the Gallatin School of New York University. A few days ago, the Trump administration announced that one of its goals is to privatize the Postal Service. A private postal system, says the White House proposal, would deliver mail fewer days per week, shift to cluster boxes instead of door and curb delivery, adjust prices and negotiate wages and benefits without government interference,...

Perhaps, I am on the wrong side of the argument on how to control healthcare costs of which one proposed solution is a part of the latest budget bill passed in a bipartisan effort in Congress on December 19, 2019. Others may disagree with me on my thoughts. What was passed was superficial and will not fix the rising cost of healthcare which drives increased healthcare insurance deductibles and premiums. Oh, and surprise billing in hospitals still lives!...

by New Deal democrat Weekly Indicators for December 23 – 27 at Seeking Alpha My last Weekly Indicators post of the year is up at Seeking Alpha. The producer side of the economy seems to be worsening, while initial jobless claims suggest some weakness is spreading over to the consumer side. As usual, clicking over and reading helps reward me a little bit for the effort I put in.

by New Deal democrat Marking my 2019 forecast to market One of the things I do at the end of every year, in the interest of transparency, is to go back and see how my 6 and 12 month forecasts for the year panned out. So how did I do this year? Not perfect, but not too shabby either. I marked to forecasts to market Over at Seeking Alpha. As usual, clicking over and reading puts a penny or two in my pocket for my efforts...

The Unreasonableness Of The Policy Defense Of Trump In today’s (12/27/19) Washington Post, regular Trump defender, Mark A. Thiessen published a column, “The 10 best things Trump did in 2019”  This turns out to be mostly things either not worth defending or Thiessen, who simply never criticizes Trump, misrepresenting situations.  Here they are. 10. “He continued to deliver for the forgotten Americans.”  This amounts to unemployment continuing to decline,...

Two Can’t Miss Sessions in San Diego Next Week Well, I can’t miss them because I’m in them.  You can, but why would you? Climate Crisis Mitigation: Implementing a Green New Deal and More Union for Radical Political Economics: Paper Session Friday, Jan. 3, 10:15am–12:15pm Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego – La Jolla B “Financial Bailout Spending Would Have Paid for Thirty Years of Climate Crisis Mitigation: Implementing a Global Green New Deal and Marshall...

A roadmap to a Democratic Senate supermajority A worthy criticism made by many observers on the Democratic side is that most of the plans being painstakingly described by the Presidential candidates will come to nothing, because the filibuster in the Senate will kill them all. The GOP will then run on the “do nothing” socialist democrats in 2022 and 2024 to retake the Congress and Presidency. As things now stand, that is a reasonable position. Bear in...