The Angry Bear

For the first time since the Great Recession my wage equation says average hourly earnings growth should be higher than the actual data shows.  Moreover, the fitted value is rising sharply.  Each of the three variables in the equation — the unemployment rate, capacity utilization and inflation expectations — is now pushing the fitted value higher.  This is the first time since that the fitted value is both above the actual growth of average hourly...

Lifted from comments on the post Our thoughts and opinions are with you, reader Mark Jamison writes: Comment: The filibuster is fundamentally undemocratic in a body that is already constructed undemocratically. The filibuster is an accident of history that has weaponized in the last twenty years. Yes, in particular circumstances it seems like a firewall but ultimately it does far more damage than good. What would the ACA have looked like if the Democrats...

Via rjs newletter via Naked Capitalism: “Among its claims: The injection well ban violates the corporation’s rights as a “person” under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments; the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and the Contract Clause and Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.” Court Orders Nonprofit Law Firm to Pay $52,000 to Oil and Gas Company for Defending Local Fracking Waste Ban –In early January, a federal judge ordered...

(Dan here…..lifted from an e-mail via iphone and I am tossing it out to the fray) by new deal democrat A few thoughts, hopefully from 30,000 feet, about the shutdown: 1. It looks like Schumer is getting rolled again. The reason the Bush tax cuts became permanent, even when the Dems held almost all the cards at the end of 2012, is that Obama failed to take a vacation to Hawaii and come back January 2 to negotiate from the new, more favorable status quo,...

Carbon footprint conundrum would be my title.  Personal involvement is important (macro is too but not the point here), but this list points to involvements well beyond many our imaginations to implement as individuals.  Personal decisions are much harder for the top activities mentioned, and from personal contacts not much on the radar of people’s decision making.  How do you go about connecting to the things “in our own control” on these points?...

Via David Dayen comes Playboy sues Boing-Boing: You can read our motion here, and EFF’s press release here. We’ll have more to say after the judge issues his ruling. Here’s the introduction from our motion to dismiss: This lawsuit is frankly mystifying. Playboy’s theory of liability seems to be that it is illegal to link to material posted by others on the web — an act performed daily by hundreds of millions of users of Facebook and Twitter, and by...

In case you forgot, a neighbor of Senator Rand Paul was charged with assaulting him. And the reason? Rene Boucher was angry by seeing the 55-year-old senator stack brush near Boucher’s property. An attorney for Boucher did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Boucher faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted, but in the plea agreement federal prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 21 months in prison. Appears to be excessive....

By Steve Roth (reposted) Image you’re Jeff Bezos, circa 1998. You’re building a company (Amazon) that stands to make you and your compatriots vastly rich. But looking forward, you see a problem: if your company makes profits, it will have to pay taxes on them. (At least nominally, in theory, 35%!) Then you and your investors will have to pay taxes on them again when they’re distributed to you as dividends. (Though yes, at a far lower 20% rate than what...

by Joseph Joyce After the Global Financial Crisis: Are We Safe Now? A decade after the global financial crisis the global economy seems (finally) to be enjoying a robust recovery. Economic growth is widespread and includes increased expenditures on investment, a sign that business firms expect continuing demand for their products. With the crisis finally behind us, we can revisit it to reassess its causes and the response. We can also ask whether our...