The Angry Bear

Kansas Republicans abandon Brownback; raise taxes over his veto Remember Kansas’s great tax-cutting experiment under Governor Sam Brownback? (Me, sarcastic?) As always in Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore La-La Land, cutting taxes leads to economic nirvana. Except when it doesn’t, and it didn’t in Kansas. I recently wrote about the idiocy of Investor Business Daily‘s criticisms of California, and Paul Krugman carried the ball further, citing me and bringing in...

President Trump has proposed budget cuts to programs and the departments running them. Amongst those departments impacted by Trump’s proposals is the Department of Education and it’s Office of Civil Rights. “ The DOE Department of Civil Rights function is to investigate discrimination complaints in school districts across the nation and create standards for responding to allegations of sexual assault and harassment.” Trump’s decreased budget would force cuts...

Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: Boring Comment on Kabaservice Have I come up with a title less attractive than “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” ? I certainly don’t expect anyone to read this post. Also I advixe against reading it — it is a waste of time. I am commenting on this NYT op-ed “The Great Performance of Our Failing President”. My first thoughts are that it is too kind to Trump and displays shocking ignorance of history (Kabaservice is a...

“One Hundred Percent” Fake News No, uh-uh, false, wrong. Trump: I’m ’100 percent’ willing to testify under oath — The Hill-2 hours ago Trump: I’m willing to testify under oath about Comey claims — CNN-3 hours ago Trump willing to testify to counter Comey under oath — Talk Media News-35 minutes ago Trump Says He’d Testify Under Oath About Comey — Featured-The Atlantic-2 hours ago Donald Trump did not say he was one hundred percent willing to testify under...

A Personal Observation On Trump’s “Infrastructure Week” Yes, folks, you may have already forgotten it, but this has officially been Trump’s “Infrastructure Week,” highlighted by his proposal to privatize air traffic control in the US, and his trip to Cincinnati where he in general terms talked about the supposed virtues of privatizing highways, bridges, and airports, While he claims he wants to provide up to $200 billion in federal funding to draw forth a...

by Peter Dorman (originally published at Econospeak) Class Resentment and the Center-Left, or the Politics of “We Are the 80%” I’ve just read the suitably downbeat piece by Thomas Edsall about the travails of the Democratic Party in today’s New York Times.  Edsall, citing a recent symposium of political strategists in The American Prospect and a report by Priorities USA, a DP polling outfit, describes the widespread abandonment of both the center and the left...

The Intelligent Economist lists Angry Bear among the top 100 economics sites in the US.

No, record job openings in JOLTS do not mean that everything is Teh Awesome! Once again most of the commentary on yesterday’s JOLTS report for April was that job openings jumped, so everything is Teh Awesome! <  Sigh  > To recap one more time… In the one and only complete business cycle that we have for this data: First, hires peaked. They started a long plateau in 2005, making a 3 month peak in late 2005, with no meaningful progress thereafter. Second,...

Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: My Sources Tell me that in the Closed Session Comey Said he has proof Trump is a Russian agent and a Lizard person COTTON: “Do you believe Donald Trump colluded with Russia?” COMEY: “It’s a question I don’t think I should answer in open session.” Sen Cotton has a degree from Harvard Law where they didn’t teach him to never ask a question unless he knows how the witness will answer. I dn’t think Comey is going to tell...