The Angry Bear

The Presidential Transition Project called “Project 2025” outlines a road map for how a new far-right presidential administration could take over the country. You can be sure Trump did not write this as it is readable. Former President Trump and his allies’ plan would have devastating impacts on our lives and our democracy, from banning abortion and contraception to gutting our system of checks and balances. One underdiscussed aspect of Project...

Personal income, spending, and prices: consumer remains strong, inflation close to 2% target no matter how you measure it  – by New Deal democrat I am on the road today, so I will have to keep this brief. In June nominal personal income rose 0.3%, and spending rose 0.2%. Since PCE inflation rose less than 0.1%, real income rose 0.2% and real spending rose 0.1%. Since spending on services tends to rise even during recessions, the more...

Been writing on Rural and Inner-city hospitals and the lack of funding for them, the buying up of the same by larger entities, and the abuse of the 340B program by the larger hospital. Once the larger hospital buys the inner-city hospital, there is a tendency to cut services and also abuse the 340B program. Rural hospitals are less funded than their city cousins. Programs such as Medicaid and Medicare pay less than their smaller margins than what...

Scientists have concluded a few years ago the Earth has entered a new climate state. This is one not seen in more than 100,000 years. Read elsewhere, that conclusion was part of a climate assessment report  published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021. In 2024, we are threading in new temperature events which do not bode well for us. The Hottest Day in 125,000 Years? The Atlantic Monday was likely the hottest day on...

Coincident real GDP metric is good, but leading indicators from the GDP report are not: is the Fed listening?  – by New Deal democrat Real GDP grew 0.7% in Q2, or a 2.8% annualized rate, a perfectly good number in line with the past three years: Probably even more importantly, the GDP deflator increased 0.6% for the quarter, or at an annualized rate of 2.3%. As the below graph shows, this is a perfectly normal rate going back to the start...

by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern Homelessness is a housing problem Somewhat of a writeup on homelessness using a review and the author’s introduction to the economic problem. Amazon published review of the book, “Homelessness Is a Housing Problem.” Authors Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many...

Who gets the money? Follow the assets. by Steve Roth Originally Published at Wealth Economics This post by Judd Legum at Popular Information (read and subscribe!) prompts me to revisit the issue of share buybacks. This passage in particular: It seems eye-popping. But is it? Even (especially?) finance and econ types don’t really understand buybacks from a big-picture, macro, national-accounting perspective. Here’s a shot at explaining...

Jobless claims hold their ground against the most challenging comparisons of last summer  – by New Deal democrat This week completed the most challenging YoY comparisons with last summer. Recall that I suspect there may be some unresolved post-pandemic seasonality in these numbers, as this year’s increase starting in late spring has been close to a mirror image of last year’s increase. So if there is some real new weakness in jobless claims,...

It appears people will argue the economic and social positives of the different political parties over periods of time. They probably are different. So, EPI has managed to chart the differences. What the first four charts do is detail the differences between the two parties over two different time periods. One time period staring in 1949 and the next time period in 1981. A contrast in beliefs? Maybe . . . The last two Appendix Charts compare...

Here is the campaign speech Harris delivered in Wisconsin.  It’s good:  short, to the point, and upbeat.  She hits on the right issues:  Trump is a criminal, abortion, economic opportunity, Republicans cannot be trusted with Social Security and Medicare, etc. A patriotic framing that emphasizes that the United States is a great country could help present this bill of particulars in a compelling way.  The basic message would be “Yes, we have our...