The Angry Bear

This is an exiting day. I disagree with something Paul Krugman wrote. In 2017, private insurance paid about a third of America’s medical bills — $1.2 trillion, or 6 percent of GDP. Having the government pay those bills directly, without a revenue offset, would therefore be a spending increase — a fiscal stimulus — of 6 percent of GDP. Suppose — as MMTers tend to assume — that interest rates nonetheless didn’t rise. Then this stimulus would have a...

My new Congressional Representative likes to use Facebook to inform her constituents of what she is doing in the House. I do engage in Facebook and probably shouldn’t do so. Facebook is too much of a waste of time and it is filled with advertising and silliness. Then too, I like knowing what our Rep is doing so I use Facebook. I also connect with various people I hope to keep in contact with as their status allows me to input my thoughts and ideas. Here...

It Is Monday And Usual Suspect Bashes Social Security  That would be Robert J. Samuelson at the Washington Post, and, yes, he has done it yet again, actually for the first time in a while.  Dean Baker has already done a good job of cutting him up over on CEPR, but I can’t help piling on as well. That would be Robert J. Samuelson at the Washington Post, and, yes, he has done it yet again, actually for the first time in a while. Dean Baker has already...

by Robert Waldmann  (lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts) The Empty Quarter, Greenwich and the Mason Dixon Line I recall being surprised to learn that I was born, bred and then living South of the Mason Dixon line. I considered the border between North and South to be the Patomac river (honestly felt I was entering enemy territory when I entered Northern Virginia — this was very long ago). My dad explained it was the border between Pennsylvania...

A decelerating Staffing Index suggests that weakening temporary jobs in the monthly employment report is not just noise Every week I report the YoY 4 week rolling average of American Staffing Association’s Index. It’s been decelerating recently, and last week was up only +0.5% YoY. On a single week basis, though, it went negative. Because I have written several posts in the last couple of months emphasizing the leading aspect of temporary jobs in the...

(There’s a movie at the end!) For decades we have been hearing about the loss of industrial production through out what is called the “Rust Belt”.  It’s presented, even as recent as the prior presidential election as a relative regional problem that only began post Reagan.  What gets me though is that the reporting and ultimately the politics are as if the rust belt is/was unique in their experience with the west and east coast experiencing nothing of the...

Ruminations On Virginia’s Difficult Situation A week ago, I posted here supporting VA Gov Ralph Northam, comparing him favorably to the late Robert C. Byrd of WV. A day later I joined the call for him to resign after his bizarre press conference that has still left unpleasant unresolved issues such as who put that awful photo in his yearbook and why. Since then much else has come forth, and this continues. In any case it looks like Northam may hang in...

“I’m not sure I follow the arithmetic here.” “Unless productivity goes up by at least 25% to compensate, everyone will be worse off.” “Dropping hours from 5 days a week to 4 means that the work that would have been done in 5 days now needs to be done in 4, which means each day needs a 25% increase in productivity. Where on earth do you think such an increase is going to come from?” “OK, but to arrive at the same output in 4 days rather than 5 means that...

Texas AG Claims Noncitizens Voted in 2018, Liam Stack, NYT Texas AG Ken Paxton: “Every single instance of illegal voting threatens democracy in our state and deprives individual Texans of their voice.” Texas has called into question 95,000 registered voters who in the past have identified themselves as noncitizen and legal residents of the United States. Other authorities are skeptical of the AG’s claim 58,000 noncitizens of the 8.2 million registered...