The Angry Bear

United States Code Title 18 § 227 #TakeAKnee

by Peter Dorman (originally published at Econospeak) Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Limited Art of Interpretation Among the least persuasive writers on contemporary politics, for me, is Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Mind you, I often agree with him, but only because I agreed with him before reading him.  If I go into a piece of his with a different perspective, nothing he says has an effect on me. Now, if I were intellectually stubborn, the sort of person who rarely...

There’s a fascinating but barely-accessible-to-a-non-neurologist article about habit formation. Here is a pretty good summary, albeit with an un-helpful title: A single kind of neuron deep within the brain serves as a “master controller” of habits, new research in mice indicates. Some habits are helpful, such as automatically washing your hands before a meal or driving the same route to work every day. They accomplish an important task while freeing up...

The asterisk in real median household income This is a follow-up to the post I wrote last week about the latest data on real median household income. One of the things I notes is that “households” includes the millions that are composed of retirees, a burgeoning demographic due both to healthier longevities and the demographics of the Boomer generation. This morning Jared Bernstein helpfully includes a graph of real median household income excluding...

Via the Guardian comes this note from well funded groups: Conservative campaign aims to strike ‘mortal blow’ on government unions  ‘A once-in-a-lifetime chance to reverse the failed policies of the American left’

“I was always very candid with my patients. They want to know that you are working for them, not someone else. We made certain they knew that.” Tom Price, MD – Secretary of HHS Republicans, the Trump administration, led by Graham and Cassidy are moving forward to defund and cripple the ACA bringing millions of people back to when states decided who could have a smidgen of healthcare and who could not. This comment by Dr. and Secretary of Health Tom...

From the Daily Mirror: None of the 400 citizens returning here after fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have been charged with war crimes. Yet the Council of Europe’s legal affairs committee recently ruled membership of the terror group, also known as Daesh, is enough for prosecution at the Hague’s International Criminal Court. Labour Shadow Minister Liam Byrne, representing Britain, backed the decision. He said: “We know British citizens were...

byPeter Dorman (originally published at Econospeak) Carbon Gridlock Redux in Washington State A year ago—it already seems like another era—an initiative to set up a carbon tax in Washington State, I-732, was defeated by the voters.  The proposal was to use the money for tax reductions in accordance with the standard economic view that taxing “bads” rather than goods generates a double dividend.  I disagree with that (I think the deadweight loss case...

Hurricane workarounds for industrial production and housing Hurricane Harvey has already affected some of the August data releases.  Irma has already started to affect some weekly releases, and will undoubtedly affect the September monthly releases. I have already begun to adjust for the hurricanes in the case of initial jobless claims.  But what of the monthly data? While there is nothing so timely and precise as backing out affected states from the...