The Angry Bear

Is Aretha The Equal Of Michelangelo? In the Washington Post of August 17, Chris Richards declared that the performance by Aretha Franklin of the title cut on her 1972 gospel-soul album, “Amazing Grace” “deserves to be compared to everything Michelangelo ever painted.”  Now  I am not prepared to go that far, but  when I learned she had died, it as this particular song by her on that album (which I have in vinyl from when it first came out) that I wanted...

(Dan here…Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts) Politico End Zone Dance The cover article of politico is a concession by Blake Hounshell that he was wrong and that I and many others were right. I enjoy a little end zone dance in comments The case is overwhelmingly convincing. Also none of the critical evidence is new. As you now are no longer a russiagate skeptic, you should concede that you were foolish in February. All the (100% convincing)...

My extended take on housing permits and starts at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My long-form take on housing sales, updated with yesterday morning’s housing permits and starts report, is up at Seeking Alpha. Like my Weekly Indicators posts, I make a penny or two when you decide to read.  So decide to read! Also worth mentioning: my overall view of housing differs somewhat from that of Bill McBride a/k/a Calculated Risk.  Like Bill, I don’t think...

It’s called the Accountable Capitalism Act.   Here’s the bill text. Yves Smith has a take on this…lots of talk in the news econ sections: Elizabeth Warren introduced her Accountable Capitalism Act in the Senate yesterday and set forth the logic of her bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The Massachusetts senator described how as recently as the early 1980s, even conservative groups acknowledged publicly that corporations were responsible to employees and...

[embedded content] 1964 “Won’t Be Long” [embedded content] 1967 “Respect” [embedded content] “My Country Tis of Thee” A pgl request in comments [embedded content] Having Church . . . “Rock Steady,” A little “Soul Train” “Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, Dead at 76”

Kevin Hassett In Lie Lie Land I feel sorry for Kevin Hassett.  Of course he made a complete fool of himself two decades ago with his book on Dow 36,000 (still some ways away) with James Glassman, but he has had a good amount of time to get over that embarrassment.  When he was appointed CEA Chair for Trump, he was of the few appointments Trump made that received praise, especially in the  area of economics.  Pretty much everybody else appointed was...

Gimme Shelter: the rental affordability crisis has worsened Four years ago HUD warned of “the worst rental affordability crisis ever,” citing statistics that About half of renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, up from 18 percent a decade ago, according to newly released research by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Twenty-seven  percent of renters are paying more than half of their income on rent. This is a serious...

Cuomo at an event, where he signed anti sex-trafficking bills into law. “We’re not gonna make America great again. It was never that great. We have not reached greatness and we will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged. We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed. When every woman is making her full contribution...