– by New Deal democrat After two benign months due to a temporary decline in energy prices this summer, the higher trend in inflation returned. And that continued in September, as prices (blue) rose 0.6%, and on a YoY% basis accelerated 0.3% to 3.7%. Core CPI excluding food and energy (red) also rose 0.3% for […]

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Introduction: I lived in Michigan for a number of years and ran in another Michigander by the name of Charles Gaba who was writing on the ACA and healthcare. This was about the time Maggie Mahar was writing at Angry Bear and retired from the spotlight. Charles has been writing about the ACA and healthcare […]

The post Up to Twelve Million Americans already lost healthcare coverage under Trump 2.0 appeared first on Angry Bear.

Book Review of the: “99% Invisible City” – by Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars The one-handed economist David Zetland This 2020 book by Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars is a spin off from the delightful podcast of the same name. The book, subtitled A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design, is full […]

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Buying diesel from Russia will not change the price of diesel. It is questionable that Russia can actually deliver the diesel fuel. It is facing domestic shortages itself. Like a typical Trump deal, this could well end in an appeal to American taxpayers to pay for something two or three times which was advertised as […]

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Trump said on Monday: “‘I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me. I think she’s a terrible person, just a complainer. She comes from a country that is a non-country, and then she comes over here, and she complains about our constitution. I think she’s a […]

The post “something’ fishy is there’, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws” appeared first on Angry Bear.

 – by New Deal democrat To repeat my housing sector mantra for the umpteenth time, mortgage rates lead sales, which in turn lead prices, which finally lead inventory.  And for the last three years, the market for existing homes has been rangebound, first in sales, then in prices, and finally this year in inventory as […]

The post The subpar equilibrium in existing home sales continues – for now appeared first on Angry Bear.

How bad is Medicaid fraud? A May 2024 report broke down the criminal convictions and civil settlements and judgments by provider type, including inpatient and outpatient facilities, non-facility providers (such as durable medical equipment suppliers), and physicians and other licensed practitioners.  Beneficiary fraud is negligible (two percent of the reported convictions and one tenth of […]

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Old friend from Slate Magazine when it was fun to write on it. Then Slate got commercial and we were shooed off. A bunch of us got together in two different cities. Finally met and went our ways as Slate crumbled into a profit center. Some awfully good writers dwelled there as I struggled to […]

The post “97% Of the Press Applaud the Three Percent Who Bailed, Plus” appeared first on Angry Bear.

In her book “March of Folly,” Barbara defined three criteria to distinguish merely mistaken policy from folly: “To qualify as folly for this inquiry, the policy adopted must meet three criteria: it must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, not merely by hindsight. … Secondly a feasible alternative course of action must […]

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 – by New Deal democrat On this Indigenous Peoples/Columbus Day holiday, there is no new economic news, so let me roll out something I have been thinking about for quite a while; namely, how to migrate from out current patchwork health care insurance system to a better, universal system. Such a migration is very popular. […]

The post A proposal for Project 2029: Medicare Advantage for All appeared first on Angry Bear.

In the last few months, Pres. Trump has taken on Iran and fumbled it rather badly. This does not mean Iran has been beating the United States during its attacks on Iran. There has been substantial damage to Iran. The retaliation coming from Iran is more danger getting through the Straits of Hormuz. Gasoline and […]

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U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, August 2026 Trade Deficit Rose 10.8% in August after July’s 30.4% Jump, Implying a 3.14% Hit to Q3 GDP r.j. sigmund: Our trade deficit rose by 13.7% in August as the value of our exports increased but the value of our imports increased by nearly four times as […]

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Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, […]

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Trump with regard to Eastern Europe has taken a different stance after years of the United States and Europe supporting Ukraine and its stance to remain an independent nation. This comes after the Russian aggressor stated its strategic objectives in Ukraine involve subjugating the country, preventing its Western integration, and retaining territorial gains taken from […]

The post “Trump undermines U.S. national security and works for Russia. Why do Republicans continue to protect him as he does it?” appeared first on Angry Bear.

Perhaps, I can be enlightened as to why these counties are losing MA plans as this is a government program. In reality. you take one, you have to take them all. You do not get to pick and choose for Medicare. This is where the Gov. should step in and lay down requirements to be […]

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As for Trump and Hegseth, their whole schtick is making a fetish of cruelty. Hasan won’t be their first public execution. They’ve murdered hundreds on the high seas, accusing them without evidence of smuggling drugs while in fact preparing the way for a putsch in Venezuela designed get their greedy hands on the oil and […]

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My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha.The paradigm that has been supreme for the last few months continues. On the one hand, there are soaring AI related stock prices fueling consumer spending. On the other hand, there are also sharply higher interest rates and gas prices. So far, AI has been ‘winning.’

The post New Deal Democrat’s Weekly Indicators for October 5 – 9  appeared first on Angry Bear.

 – by New Deal democrat While we are waiting for new data releases to start back up, let me follow up on the surprise revisioins last week to personal income, that took real personal income for declining for over a year to an almost relentless rise. So shocking was this reversal that for the first […]

The post Last week’s major revisions to personal income: comparing the source data appeared first on Angry Bear.

– by Steve Roth @ Wealth Economics There are two Very Big Differences between markets for goods and services and markets for (financial) assets, that should throw devotees of supply-demand graphs into conniption fits. They don’t seem to be widely considered. Standard-issue supply-and-demand graphs are all about flows. The spending flow (demand) drives the production […]

The post The Asset-Price/Quantity Conundrum: Supply, Demand, Stocks, Flows appeared first on Angry Bear.

Death, euthanasia and consumption by The One Handed Economist Last week, we killed another boat. It was my third. We “killed” these boats by taking them to the recycling center (another euphemism) where they were crushed by machines so the wood could go to the incinerator. Thus, we can also say that the boats are […]

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