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Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
Site URL: angrybearblog.com/
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Posts: 47
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New vaccines and placebo controls
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/new-vaccines-and-placebo-controls
Published: May 15, 2025 10:05
I was a subject in the Moderna Phase III trial for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. It was a placebo-controlled trial: of the 30,000 people enrolled, half received the vaccine and half got the saline control. I ended up breaking the blind by having myself tested…
Who is Scott Bessent?
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/who-is-scott-bessent
Published: May 14, 2025 21:48
Well, he’s Secretary of the Treasury under Trump. But what about the man, not the title? “Bessent, according to an interview in the Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015, never imagined he’d be able to get married as a gay man, and have children via surrogacy. It’s…
“Rich Get Richer” Theories
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/rich-get-richer-theories
Published: May 14, 2025 19:51
Which of Piketty’s “Rich Get Richer” Theories Matters More? – by Steve Roth Wealth Economics For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. —Matthew 25:29, Revised…
April CPI: the second victorious report in a row
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/april-cpi-the-second-victorious-report-in-a-row
Published: May 14, 2025 17:21
– by New Deal democrat Last month, I wrote that the March CPI report was the one we had been waiting for for the past three years. April’s was the second one in a row. To cut to the chase, there were no major components besides shelter which qualified as…
Pharmaceutical Industry Ignoring Kennedy and Trump
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/pharmaceutical-industry-ignoring-kennedy-and-trump
Published: May 14, 2025 12:00
Maybe there is another way the pharmaceutical industry can be forced to lower pricing. They are ignoring both the president and the HHS secretary orders to lower pricing. The industry as it is . . . is untouchable and impervious to the same threats as what…
Michigan: Cuts to Medicaid will increase costs for hospitals and small businesses, and strain the state budget
Published: May 14, 2025 11:30
A followup to Andrew Sprung’s (xpostfactoid) piece on the impact to individuals. This is one report of many detailing what will happen in one state, the state of Michigan. Multiply this many times over to begin to understand why a Tax Break bill failing to…
When Republicans write Legislation, Low-Income People will suffer the most
Published: May 14, 2025 11:00
The impact on individuals . . . Of course, this is maintaining Trump’s 2017 Tax breaks Reconciliation legislation. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not pay for itself within the 10-year period of time required. Not paying for itself through increasing…
“tiny inventions that make our world work”
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/tiny-inventions-that-make-our-world-work
Published: May 13, 2025 22:40
“Nuts & Bolts” David Zetland The one-handed economist Book Review: I bought this 2023 book by Roma Agrawal after hearing her interviewed on a podcast. I was really excited to read about “tiny inventions that make our world work,” but I was ultimately…
Divide between Democracy and Oligarchy
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/divide-between-democracy-and-oligarchy
Published: May 13, 2025 18:29
“The single stupidest statement about Trump ever made,” Robert Reich RFK Jr: ”Elizabeth Warren or Robert Reich saying that President Trump is on the side of the oligarchs, there has never been a president more willing to stand up to the oligarchs than…
Vietnam and U.S. Tariffs
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/vietnam-and-u-s-tariffs
Published: May 13, 2025 16:39
If you travel in Asia, you can find knock-off products which are very similar to the original product with minor differences . . . wear and tear could be one of the differences. Of course, the cost would be far less and the product may look a bit…
Tariffs Make Up 1.6% of All Federal Revenue
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/176300
Published: May 13, 2025 13:00
In other words, it is not much to be chasing and probably cost us more in lost trade due to Trump’s tinkering with it to extract concessions from other countries. If you look at the chart, you can see Individual and Corporate taxes made up the bulk of the…
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Talks
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts-talks
Published: May 12, 2025 22:34
Live coverage as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts speaks with Dean William M. Treanor as a part of the 2025 Graduating Class at Georgetown Law. Certainly, worth listening too. I do not agree with some of the conclusions the majority has reached.…
Measures of median wage growth show why consumers have still been able to outpace tariff increases
Published: May 12, 2025 21:30
– by New Deal democrat We’re still in a new data drought. CPI is out tomorrow, and then a slew of data on Thursday. In the meantime there is one more data point that helps explain why consumers are still powering the economy forward. The Atlanta Fed…
Trump Caves on Tariffs
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trump-caves-on-tariffs
Published: May 12, 2025 19:52
The good news is that Trump agreed to end the trade war he started with China reducing Tariffs to 30% for 90 days. China reduced tariffs on imports from the US to 10%, In exchange China agreed to discuss things. For 90 days Tariffs are the status quo…
More fuel to help consumers deal with tariffs
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/more-fuel-to-help-consumers-deal-with-tariffs
Published: May 12, 2025 18:45
“Every time inflation went up more than aggregate payrolls YoY, it marked the beginning of a recession +/- 2 months.“ More fuel to help consumers deal with tariffs: real aggregate nonsupervisory payrolls likely increased again in April – by New Deal…
Would you buy a blood testing device from this guy?
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/would-you-buy-a-blood-testing-device-from-this-guy
Published: May 12, 2025 16:12
Remember Theranos, the phony blood testing company fronted by made-for-TV wuderkind Elizabeth Holmes? “Elizabeth Holmes’s romantic partner – the father of her children – reportedly has raised millions of dollars to start up a new blood-testing company that…
Job Market for the Young, Educated Workers
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/job-market-for-the-young-educated-workers
Published: May 12, 2025 11:30
“Something strange, and potentially alarming, is happening to the job market for young, educated workers,” The Atlantic According to the New York Federal Reserve, labor conditions for recent college graduates have “deteriorated noticeably” in the past few…
Oil
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/oil-4
Published: May 12, 2025 11:00
Middle East is cutting oil prices. My guess is their wanting to stymie US production which is more expensive. A runup to the late sixties oil embargo without the embargo. Oil prices tumble after OPEC+ says it will step up production | PBS News Stocks are…
Trump’s flim-flam pharmaceuticals plan
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trumps-flim-flam-pharmaceuticals-plan
Published: May 12, 2025 10:24
Trump announced that he’ll sign an executive order today that will lower drug costs in the US. ““I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the…
Presidential bribery, sanewashed by the NYT
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/presidential-bribery-sanewashed-by-the-nyt
Published: May 11, 2025 23:40
“It came out that the Qataris were gifting the souped-up plane to the U.S. for Trump’s use as President and then, after his presidency, it would be given to the Trump Presidential Library. As soon as I heard this, I was pretty sure this had now become a…
China Tariffs
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/china-tariffs
Published: May 11, 2025 20:37
Comment by Terry (Terrance Nilles) as taken from “Trump’s China tariff gambit is failing,” Angry Bear At the end of the day, I think the whole tariff thing is not about raising money to pay for tax cuts or to bring industry back to this country or to stop…
European Leaders Arrive in Kyiv
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/european-leaders-arrive-in-kyiv
Published: May 11, 2025 12:00
European leaders arrive in Kyiv after Putin’s parade, Bangkok Post KYIV — The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland arrived in Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a show of unity a day after Russia’s Vladimir…
Anything related to the EV battery industry concerns us if the Industry is Not Viable,
Published: May 11, 2025 11:30
This does not surprise me. States attempting to attract business which will be in the right industry or the industry of the future. I am sure there will be more occurrences as politicians and states attempt to get ahead of the curve by attracting the right…
The Mother Who Wasn’t
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/the-mother-who-wasnt
Published: May 11, 2025 11:00
Happy Mother’s Day to the Ladies who comment on Angry Bear and also to those who just come to read our commentaries. I can not think of a woman who could not be a mother to a child in distress or just needing direction or guidance. They do not have to be…
Mostly About Social Security – Briefly
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/mostly-about-social-security-briefly
Published: May 10, 2025 11:30
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) re-introduced a bicameral bill, “The Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act.” The aim of the bill is to require taxpayers with yearly incomes of more than $400,000 to contribute a fairer…
America’s Money Managers
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/americas-money-managers
Published: May 10, 2025 11:00
Some select facts about the Treasury Department Functions. This includes the size of it, currency, national banks, costs of tax collection, budget, etc. The latter of which make the Treasury the third largest department fund wise. Some interesting graphs…
Politician Meet and Greet with Journalist
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/politician-meet-and-greet-with-journalist
Published: May 9, 2025 19:16
In a recent video podcast of The Jim Acosta Show, former news anchor and White House correspondent Jim Acosta catches up with Representative (Republican) outside of Capitol Hill. The reasons he was pursuing Representatives? To ask why they focused on the…
The zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/the-zoonotic-origin-of-sars-cov-2
Published: May 9, 2025 14:36
I’ll start by saying that science doesn’t deal in proof. Science draws provisional conclusions based on the weight of evidence. A scientific hypothesis is one that can be tested and potentially falsified by experiment. The hypothesis that the origin of…
Trump’s China tariff gambit is failing
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trumps-china-tariff-gambit-is-failing
Published: May 9, 2025 13:37
Trump slapped 145% tariffs on China, thinking it would hurt them more then it would hurt the US. Of course, trade is global, and so China’s exports surged in April as a result of a jump in shipments to Southeast Asia, offsetting the drop in outbound goods…
Pressuring countries facing U.S. tariffs to have satellite internet services
Published: May 9, 2025 11:31
More wheeling and dealing by the Trump administration and Musk. As Common Dreams calls it, More Corruption. I am not sure if any other of the past presidencies can match the open quid pro quo we are witnessing with this administration. And it right out in…
Open Thread – DOGE and other topics
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/open-thread-doge-and-other-topics
Published: May 9, 2025 11:00
Angry Bear did have “open threads” in the past. I added one topic to it. If there are other topics you wish to talk about, have at it. Conflicts of interest with DOGE or Not? “A Public Citizen report, titled Duplicitous Oligarchy Grifting Endlessly, “maps…
CBO Likely Underestimates Medicaid Coverage losses
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/cbo-likely-underestimates-medicaid-coverage-losses
Published: May 8, 2025 22:40
Looking at the impact of Mike Johnson and the House proposal of cutting Medicaid will have an impact. Meanwhile, Trump is expecting cuts so as to keep the 2017 tax cuts of which a major portion went to the upper one-percent in income. Estimate “seems low”…
New jobless claims well-behaved, but continuing claims trend higher
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/new-jobless-claims-well-behaved-but-continuing-claims-trend-higher
Published: May 8, 2025 18:56
– by New Deal democrat Initial jobless claims returned to a well-behaved range this week, down -13,000 to 228,000. The four week moving average was in line, increasing 1,000 to 227,000. Continuing claims, with the typical one week delay, declined -37,000…
Why We Should Not Get Excited Over Trump Deals
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/why-we-should-not-get-excited-over-trump-deals
Published: May 8, 2025 15:07
Pulling from the latest Krugman article in my email box. The country is on the road to nowhere economically. It is just one story after another which are supposed to convince us something wonderful is going to happen due to Trump deals. Four months in and…
Leading employment sectors from the April jobs report – no definitive signs of peaking
Published: May 8, 2025 12:00
– by New Deal democrat Let’s take a belated look at some of the more important datapoints that came out of last Friday’s employment report for April. To start with, as I’ve mentioned numerous times, frequently service jobs (blue in the graph below)…
Prices and unemployment – Up. The rest of the economy adjusting downward
Published: May 8, 2025 11:30
Some old guy handed over a damaged economy in January. The economy was definitely in a failure mode. The economy is heading into very bad weather. Brace yourselves. “Prices and unemployment are heading up. Everything else is going down,” Robert Reich…
Measles Still an Issue in the US
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/measles-still-an-issue-in-the-us
Published: May 8, 2025 11:00
Environment, Energy, and Related News from the week ending May 3rd. – by R. J. Sigmund Measles Texas measles total grows to 663 as Arkansas reports local spread, CIDRAP The Texas Department of State Health Services today reported 17 more measles cases…
Winning
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/winning
Published: May 7, 2025 20:55
“A drop in Canada-U.S. travel has led Calgary-based WestJet to cancel more flights south of the border. “The airline says it is suspending flights from Vancouver to Austin until October. “Flights to other destinations, including Orlando, Los Angeles and…
The price of Trump’s war on universities
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/the-price-of-trumps-war-on-universities
Published: May 7, 2025 15:21
For decades, the United States has been the world leader in scientific research. Even as China has been catching up, the US has managed to remain a magnet for scientists world-wide, and its universities are the most desirable destinations for undergrads…
Trump just raised taxes
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trump-just-raised-taxes
Published: May 7, 2025 13:13
As everyone should know, tariffs are just consumption taxes. Other countries don’t pay them. Importers don’t pay them. The extra cost is just added to the retail price. “As of 12:01 am ET on Saturday, most auto part imports will come with a 25% import tax.…
Some Politics and Help on Understanding the Public’s View on Medicaid
Published: May 7, 2025 12:00
An overview of recent KFF polling on the public’s views of and connections to Medicaid, the federal-state government health insurance for certain low-income adults and children and long-term care program for adults 65 and older and younger adults with…
Confirmation of Bisignano by Senate GOP Greenlights ‘DOGE Dismantling Social Security’
Published: May 7, 2025 11:30
Republicans chose the worse alternative for strengthening Social Security. Instead Bisignano will be implementer of Social Security’s demise. Democrats need t really step back and do whatever is necessary to block this appointment. More recently than the…
Importance of strengthening Social Security
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/importance-of-strengthening-social-security
Published: May 7, 2025 11:00
“Nancy Altman testifies in Congress on the importance of strengthening Social Security,” JustCare, April 16, 2024 Not exactly the person one might want to protect Social Security as it is today. Nancy Altman has suggested . . . The right way is to require…
Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trump-americans-who-died-in-war-are-losers-and-suckers
Published: May 6, 2025 19:26
Being XMilitary (Sgt. E-5 USMC) does not give me a pulpit from which to demean those who were not involved in the late sixties. I think at times those who fled the country to avoid military service were brave. More than likely, they would never be able to…
Trump lies about trade
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/trump-lies-about-trade
Published: May 6, 2025 18:05
“As Trump passed the 100-day mark in office last week, the White House touted a growing list of more than 50 announcements by private companies since Jan. 20 to invest more than $5 trillion in the United States. Trump boasted about them Tuesday during an…
ICE Mortgage Monitor: Home Prices Continue to Cool
https://angrybearblog.com/2025/05/ice-mortgage-monitor-home-prices-continue-to-cool
Published: May 6, 2025 17:58
As presented: – by Bill McBride CalculatedRisk Newsletter Here is the ICE April Mortgage Monitor report (pdf). Press Release: ICE Mortgage Monitor: First-Time Homebuyers Comprise Record Share of Agency Purchase Lending in Q1 2025 Intercontinental Exchange,…
Consumers continue to front-run tariffs, now with an energy tailwind
Published: May 6, 2025 17:13
– by New Deal democrat Back in March I took a look at how producers and consumers reacted to periods of high political policy uncertainty, concluding that usually in the past consumers had reacted first, somewhere between almost simultaneously to with a…