The Angry Bear

According to a report, Global Waves of Debt, pre-published by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Waves of debt accumulation have been a recurrent feature of the global economy over the past fifty years. In emerging and developing countries, there have been four major debt waves since 1970. The first three waves ended in financial crises—the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the Asia financial crisis of the late 1990s, and...

Poverty is the worst form of violence.  Mahatma Gandhi This particular Baltimore Sun commentary goes hand in hand with Paul Krugman’s commentary on making life more difficult for the <less than 138% FPL  using Medicaid. The motive of the Trumpians. Trump, and Republicans is to punish people for things impacting them through no fault of their own. Trumps plays to a crowd who believe others less fortunate are getting something for nothing. It is an old...

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,...