I don’t know if my IQ was tested. Needless to say, I don’t know what my IQ is. I do know that I was awarded a BA in microbiology with honors at the age of 22, a PhD in genetics at the age of 27, a tenure track assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology […]

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Book Review: The World for Sale The one-handed economist Javier Blas and Jack Farchy (B&F) published this book in 2022, and I decided to read it after hearing them discuss it on a podcast. The book focuses on commodity traders “who barter the Earth’s resources” as it says in the subtitle. On the one hand, these […]

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– by New Deal democrat Note: there was a good advance manufacturers’ new orders report for September this morning. I’m going to save discussing it until Friday, when I dissect the regional Fed reports, which are now all in through November. Neither building permits and starts, nor new residential sales, were updated this morning, which means […]

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Reading Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s take on American history always reveals something I did not know. misunderstood, or what I wanted to know of about. There is a message here which I believe applies to the events occurring in the United States today. I subscribe to Prof. Heather’s Substack and find her words to be […]

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I was a Boy Scout for about three years as a teenager. The troop I was in was sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Every evening on camping trips we said the rosary around the campfire. I progressed to Star Scout rank before dropping out. One of my younger brothers was in a different troop […]

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Happy Thanksgiving to Angry Bear’s readers, writers, and family. Hope all is well by you.

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– by New Deal democrat With the end of the government shutdown, jobless claims are fully updated and back on their regular schedule. And this week, there was more of the same. Initial jobless claims were down -6,000 to a very low 216,000, and the four week average declined -1,000 to 223,750. With the typical […]

The post Jobless claims continue recent trends, do not suggest any worsening of unemployment appeared first on Angry Bear.

Inherited Economies Biden and Trump, Patreon – by Dean Baker Donald Trump may not be able to remember what things were like five years ago, when he handed the economy and the country to Joe Biden, but it is important that the rest of us do. As in so many other areas where Trump tries […]

The post The Economies of Biden and Trump . . . Similar? appeared first on Angry Bear.

I lived in Tennessee from 1958, when my parents moved to Oak Ridge, until 1977 when I moved to Chapel Hill NC to start grad school. While these might be considered my “formative years,” I don’t consider myself a Tennessean. Judged by number of years spent in a state, I’m Missourian, since I lived in […]

The post Ah, Tennessee appeared first on Angry Bear.

This report from Environmental Health News (EHN) is 3= years old. I would regard it as relatively accurate in 2025. In Livingston County Michigan, the lakes were polluted with types of PFAS and many of the fish caught in lakes such as Strawberry lake carried PFAS. Unknown to many, people were eating the fish. I can not […]

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In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen coined a number of terms that have become terms of art: conspicuous consumption, conspicuous waste, pecuniary emulation, invidious comparison, and invidious distinction. He introduced the latter term as it pertained to different kinds of employment in a “higher barbarian culture”: …the distinction between exploit and drudgery […]

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 – by New Deal democrat First, a scheduling note. Several data releases have been made this morning. Several more delayed releases having to do with housing *might* be released tomorrow. Alas, the very late Q3 GDP report is not going to be released at all until the end of December. There will be no releases on […]

The post Producer prices in September told a tale of goods vs. services (plus; programming note) appeared first on Angry Bear.

My wife and I did our PhDs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It took us five years after we finished undergrad. “Typically, the philosophy department at Boston University funds PhD candidates for up to seven years. Grippo, who uses they/them pronouns, started PhD coursework in 2019, and as of September, still […]

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This does not surprise me. Medicare Advantage is more costly. Medicare Advantage plan extends services well beyond what Traditional Medicare provides. Furthermore, the Advantage plans were heavily subsidized with Traditional Medicare funds. How is Medicare Advantage funded? This was a long time coming . . . Some Medicare Advantage funding comes from the enrolled people’s […]

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If Congress does not extend the enhanced premium tax credits, older Marketplace enrollees, especially early retirees and the self-employed, would see some of the steepest increases in premiums. The enhanced premium tax credits lowered the share of income enrollees had to pay toward premiums and expanded subsidy eligibility to people with incomes above 400% of the federal […]

The post Expiring ACA Tax Credits Cause Higher Premiums Due to Age Rating appeared first on Angry Bear.

An article by Lloyd Alter about the problematic construction of a tall building (NYC) that flexes and bends in the wind. The result of which are cracks in the in the exterior surface of the building which is also load bearing. Too costly for me to live there and I probably would not even if […]

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Scenes from the very tardy September jobs report  – by New Deal democrat An opening comment: it is an abomination that the US government treated its statistical agencies as doing expendable work. Thus, after over 85 years of continuity, there will never be an unemployment rate, nor a consumer inflation reading, for October. Which means we […]

The post An Ongoing War by this Administration against Knowledge manifested by the higher education community, medical, and scientific research appeared first on Angry Bear.

Republicans are campaigning for work requirements in order to get Medicaid. According to one report in May: “Between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults would lose Medicaid coverage in 2026 due to proposed work requirements.” Denying Medicaid does not mean people will not get healthcare if needed. It does mean, hospitals would not be paid […]

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Zelensky wrote on social media: ‘It’s important to not forget the main goal, to stop the Russian war and prevent it from breaking out again in the future. ‘That’s why we’re so carefully working on every point, on every step toward peace.‘ Trump had given Ukraine a Thursday deadline to respond to the proposal, which would require […]

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