The Angry Bear

March 2018 personal income and spending Programming note: I’ve been working on a mega-post about housing, that is now complete except for a few graphs. So, please excuse the brevity otherwise. March 2018 real personal income and spending were both positive. So far, so good. The personal saving rate fell slightly: Again, this is consistent with a late cycle dynamic where consumers are more stretched than they were earlier in the expansion. Real personal...

Last week I was browsing through one of the books on the shelf at work, which had in it three essays by the inter-war German Marxist Karl Korsch. One of the essays, a 1932 introduction to Capital mentioned mentioned a section in Chapter 24, “The So-Called Labour Fund” as exemplary of Marx’s critique of political economy. The “labour fund” was more commonly known as the wages-fund, the doctrine famously recanted by John Stuart Mill in 1869. After it had...

There has been a bit of commotion recently about the Job Guarantee idea (AKA employer of last resort). I don’t consider myself an opponent of the strategy but I do have several reservations about its political feasibility, the marketing rhetoric of its advocates, and its economic and administrative transparency. Some of these concerns I share with an analysis presented by Robert LaJeunesse in his 2009 book, Work Time Regulation as Sustainable Full...

[embedded content]Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow zeroes in on Mick Mulvaney cutting funding to preserve the Great lakes which no one state controls and will suddenly become a Federal issue if this vast national resource of fresh water is polluted. Quelle Surprise! Mick Mulvaney purposely gets it wrong by comparing Arkansas dependency on Federal taxes to Michigan and Wisconsin dependency. Arkansas ranks 22nd in dependency on Federal $, Michigan 25th and...

 by New Deal democrat Don’t sweat the Q3 2017 job losses As an initial matter, this is a good time to remind you that the data is the data is the data. It’s not partisan. I’ve seen some of the same people who were touting “It’s still Obama’s economy” all last year (and I agree with that) now suddenly saying that the Q3 BED job losses show that “the Trump/GOP economy is tanking” No, they don’t. The big flashing red neon sign is in this state by state map...

Q1 2018 GDP downshifts slightly; long leading indicators mixed This morning’s preliminary reading of Q1 2018 GDP at +2.3%, down from the previous quarter’s +2.9%, was generally in line with forecasts.  As usual, my attention is focused less on where we *are* than where we *will be* in the months and qatter will not be released until the second or third revision of the report, I make use of proprietors’ income as a more timely if less reliable...

Since the presidential election there have been claims made that the Democratic Party is not interested in change.  People have noted how the pre-election rhetoric of both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did not match their post election actions.  (I’ve pointed out specific examples in the past). I just heard the following article on Democracy Now and I think it is important for people to hear just what has been happening when it comes to the hoped for...

(Dan here….lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts) A New Pareto Liberal Paradox (reposted from 2004) One of the core principles of Liberalism is that there must be equality before the law. The law must not discriminate. In practice, this principle is often restricted to citizens and people are citizens only if they are born in the liberal polity or have the right ancestors. I personally consider this restriction absolutely inconsistent with my core...