The Angry Bear

I have been writing on the Opioid epidemic for years. I was asked to write on it by some organizations. SCOTUS tossing the settlement may be due to the settlement releasing the Sacklers from any liability in promotion and the sale of Oxycontin, etc. Supreme Court tosses opioid settlement worth billions for states, victims, USA TODAY and also at MSN. Quick Note: For the settlement worth $billions, there was also a release of liability for the...

Imagine that Congress wants to address some social or economic problem by prohibiting certain undesirable acts.  One approach Congress can take is to specifically describe the undesirable behavior and prohibit it.  This approach sometimes works well – it is the basis of traditional criminal law – but it has two great disadvantages.  First, in many fields – like drug regulation and pollution control – Congress lacks the expertise to identify which...

 – by New Deal democrat One item I meant to address with this week’s existing and new home sales data was the relative difference in price in the two, and the effect on the relative share of the market.  I am following up now because yesterday Kevin Drum put up a post yesterday in which he concluded that “The price of a new house is now below its pre-pandemic trendline and heading toward its 2020 level . . . When the Fed finally gets around to...

I am the recipient of Robert Reich’s commentaries which I have posted here on occasion. Mostly, this is to introduce other information which may differ than mine, to seek comments from people who read it, and to seek on topic comments here. It may seem like we are grouchy at times. Much of which is due to when some wander off topic or take other liberties which we may frown upon. The latest . . . The taxing difference by Robert Reich...

By Daniel Bergstresser Econofact Second of two commentaries on Government Debt. This commentary does mention tax policies since 2000 which reduced revenue. The latest passed in 2017 as advocated by trump and supported by Congress. It passed under Reconciliation. The failure to balance out the debt created by the tax reduction with revenue achieved through economic growth will force a repeal of it. Here, the author discusses the dreag on...

Tom Walker or Sandwichman (many of us know him as) has a series of articles I am going to post to Angry Bear. Tom spends much of his time discussing Labor and its value to capital or what I would call manufacturing. Without Labor input there would be no value. Leisure to Attend to Our Spiritual Business (updated to include link to published article) by Tom Walker (Sandwichman) ABSTRACT (PDF AVAILABLE HERE)...

 – by New Deal democrat We finished housing data for the month with this morning’s report on new single family home sales and prices. As I usually point out, new home sales are the most leading of the housing construction metrics, but they are noisy and heavily revised.  That was true again in May. Sales (blue in the second graph below) declined -11.3% m/m to 619,000 annualized, after April was revised sharply higher by +64,000 to 698,000. As...

From the NYT: After Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli officials declared a siege of Gaza, and they have severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, saying they do not want it to help Hamas. From October to early May, the daily number of aid trucks entering the territory through the two main crossing points in southern Gaza dropped by around 75 percent, according to U.N. data, and reports of hunger and malnourishment...

An abbreviated portion of Preston Mui’s “Where High Rates are Restricting Investment,” Employ America. This portion of his economic commentary discusses housing and in particular Multifamily. Preston Mui: The Federal Reserve has held rates at the current level for nearly a year. The majority of the committee appears confident that monetary policy is currently restrictive. From the perspective of their confidence, the question for monetary policy...

Discussing US Debt looked interesting enough to post on Angry Bear. I do not agree with the proposed fixes as I believe there are other fixes which would resolve the issues mentioned. Perhaps you have better ideas? Addressing Rising US Debt by Karen Dynan Econofact, The Issue: United States Federal debt rose sharply after the Great Recession. At 98% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, it is close to its highest level ever....