Tag Archives: politics

For some reason in this time of crisis both foreign and domestic, I feel the need to remind Angrybear readers of a very simple stylized fact: If the income tax is constitutional and the top rate is less than 69% then non-incumbent Democratic candidates for President have won if and only if they promise to increase taxes on the rich and cut taxes for everyone else. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden did that (and Obama and Biden actually kept...

There are good reasons to want to know the cause of an accident, a fire, – or even a crime; finding out the cause of – the reason for – something undesirable happening could help prevent a recurrence.The media seem to think that we, the public, feel that assigning blame is at least as important as determining the cause. Or, perhaps, it is top-down; the media want us to think it is at least as important to find someone to blame as it is to find the...

For the past few days I have been wondering if Netanyahu has a plan for responding to the Hamas terror killings, or if he’s just temporizing.  More and more, it seems like he is just skating in front of the breaking ice.  If this is right, it’s one more misdeed for which he and his cronies need to be held accountable. Any competent military would have a carefully worked out contingency plan for all-out war against Hamas.  That plan would take into...

Roosevelt Institute’s Economist Mike Konczal calls this a remarkable recovery. The increase in the number of people working has helped tamp down inflation and has shown the importance of aiming for full employment. Myself? I do not think this was planned by any authority, including the Fed. One belief I do have is there being a contrived supply chain shortage by business leading to increasing need for Labor. I do not recall a positive economic...

The situation at the Rafah crossing from the Gaza strip to Egypt is crazy beyond belief. Crazy things are happing. Sane things are not happening, basically because it is closed even though there are US citizens desperate to cross it to get out of the Gaza strip and a desperate need to get food and medicine and fuel for generators into the Gaza strip. The Rafah crossing is closed partly because, although Israel can not order it closed, their...

This post will be long and confused. It is on a topic on which I am unusually especially ignorant as I decided that the case was hopeless 20 years ago and stopped following it. The current war makes me think that, at least things could be less horrible than they are, and I can’t help trying to think of how the horror could be reduced. First, I think that the current Israeli military action is a strategic mistake. I also think that the civilian...

I thought this article was a solid rehash of what took place in the early seventies when we were driving the inefficient monsters Detroit was manufacturing. It was only a short time earlier, smaller and more efficient foreign cars arrived in the US from places such as Japan. I was fortunate to snag a Datsun 510 shortly before the oil embargo. Some information on this article, where it came from, and the authors. The Conversation allows...

I do not follow the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians closely because it is complex, well outside my area of expertise, and deeply depressing.  I find it depressing because I have always believed in a two-state solution, and it has long been difficult watching that goal slip ever further out of reach.  After the barbaric terror attack on Israelis by Hamas and the increasing likelihood of an excessively brutal Israeli response it is worth...

State of Global Water Resources 2022, World Meteorological Organization, wmo.int. The hydrological cycle is undergoing significant changes, with increasing global variability. Mainly due to climate change and human interventions. Living with Water Scarcity, Angry Bear, Dan Crawford, Living with Water Scarcity (2nd edition), The one-handed economist, David Zetland. ...

It appears that one important source of the appalling success of the Hamas terrorist invasion of Israel was their use of Drones. Israel relied on a medium tech remote sensing and viewing system with video cameras and remote-controlled machine guns connected to controllers through a cell-phone like system. Hamas used drones to knock out the cameras, machine guns, and, especially, the cell-towers. This means they could enter Israel without being...