The Angry Bear

by Merrill Goozner GoozNews How high-deductible health insurance plans, touted by free marketeers, caused the medical debt crisis and degraded public health. ~~~~~~~~ The 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, best known for its senior citizen drug plans, also encouraged the rapid expansion of high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). It allowed people, mostly well-off, to put pre-tax earnings into health savings accounts (HSAs) – the equivalent of...

Let’s be very clear: in vitro fertilization (IVF) results in far more zygotes than will ever be implanted. Further, pre-implantation testing means that some zygotes will be rejected. In the end, this means that millions of fertilized eggs will be discarded. That was always baked in the IVF cake. For reasons that escape me as a PhD geneticist, some people believe that the cluster of cells that we call “zygotes” are the moral equivalent of a fully...

Excellent piece by one of CEPR’s Domestic Program Interns . . . Alex Richwine. That name rings a bell with me. I am sure you will find this piece to be an excellent report detailing university investment returns. Quite apropos . . . give todays circumstances. ~~~~~~~~ University Endowment Returns Don’t Measure Up by Alex Richwine and Dean Baker CEPR Of the many demands made by student protestors in recent weeks, the demand to divest...

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. While the inverted yield curve and negative money supply growth keep the long leading indicators negative, both the short leading and coincident indicators have almost all turned neutral or positive. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual moment as to the state of the economy, and bring me my lunch money for the coming week. The...

The IEA report covers a February-to-February timeframe 2023 – 2024. When the IEA speaks of evolution, they are reviewing the OECD usage and direction for 13 months. There is a brief summation in the beginning for Fossil Fuel. Renewable Sources, and Nuclear power production. The charts tell the rest of the story for the OECD associated countries. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Electricity Production, IEA (2024), Monthly...

Nice Evening Read. I am not a big believer in tariffs. However, as it is today and from the seventies, domestic companies have relocated to countries to escape avoid associated Labor and Domestic costs prevalent in the United States. Cost such as healthcare, OT, work conditions, Workman’s Comp, SS, etc. and there are issues such as child labor, etc. It is purposeful avoidance I am hoping the tariffs will apply to those companies as well as...

 – by New Deal democrat To reiterate my Big Picture theme for this year, now that the supply chain tailwind has ended, will the effects of the 2022-23 Fed rate hikes drag the economy down towards recession at last, or will there be a “soft landing” (or no landing at all) instead, because interest rates have not increased in the past 12+ months? As a result, I am focusing most heavily on the leading sectors of manufacturing production and...

I decided to take a break from the recital of numbers on the economy, energy, or population and look elsewhere for something to feature. I spent some time at Slate’s The Best of the Fray. It was heavily populated with people who could really discuss the issues and the law. Not so numbers oriented like myself. Dahlia Lithwick was the legal expert then and even now at Jurisprudence. Her latest is on Sam Alito who is supposedly a Justice at...

Angry Bear is fortunate to have amongst its stable of writers, New Deal democrat. I can always count on his having a commentary on a daily basis. If you have not been following his reports on the economy, you should be. A double header today. New home sales: all of the shoes have dropped except one . . .  – by New Deal democrat I am departing from my typical recap of new home sales this month. There is an important turn that was...

Yes, the South is increasing in population according to these Census numbers. There appears to be a reversal in or new growth in the Midwest and the Northeast. The growth is not as great. Texas appears to be growing faster than other parts of the country. I believe the limiting factor is going to be water, the same as it will be in Arizona. Unless there is continuous rainfall, both areas will be growth restrictive. I am going to tie to this in...