Cactus sends the following note: There are a lot of things happening in my life right now requiring big decisions and I need to take a break from less pressing needs for a while to sort them out. I don’t know when or if I’ll be back writing for Angry Bear. Its possible you may […]
Reader Jeff writes: I’ve yet to read the book but the summary is promising — which is somewhat surprising given the lack of time the author has spent in China. It’s a fact that growth is vital in China’s “bicycle economy” (doesn’t do slow), and that the institutional underpinnings of growth are strained, where they […]
It has been great weather here in Riland, today included. In the spirit of celebrating growth renewing (as we count down the days to the election) I thought I would put up some pictures of the shop and add some color to the blog. Some of the none language kind of color that is. No, […]
Michael Perelman at Econospeak continues his thoughts on captial spending and finacialization of US companies. Here is his post: 3 Takes on Investment in the United States: 3 Regarding the question savings glut versus investment scarcity, a week ago, I wrote to the Washington Post journalist, Steve Mufson, asking how long he thought that Exxon’s […]
The LA Times carries an article on Iraq today. American officials had long credited Sadr’s truce for having helped reduce sectarian violence in Iraq since September, a period coinciding with the increased U.S. troop presence in Iraq that began in early 2007. But on Sunday, Rice jettisoned the delicacy with which senior American officials have […]
Stormy earlier discussed the Frankel thesis that low rates leads to higher commodity prices.I can see the argument, but I do not buy it. Rather I have alway looked at it the other way and viewed commodity prices as a leading indicator of interest rates. Rising commodity prices are a sign of strong worldwide economic […]
Angry Bear posters and readers have commented on the striking shrinking of regulation in housing (HUD), finance (OCC, SEC) , taxes (IRS enforcement), and Safety (FDA). In conjunction are proposals to make huge vaguely defined powers available to use the military for domestic purposes that includes “other conditions” as a cause for use, and the […]
I have been reading the book: The Writing on the Wall. Mr. Will Hutton is the author. The book is billed as a look at what makes China tick and what the west should do about it. I chose it on the strength of the reviews as I wanted to learn more about China in […]
More interesting information on income inequality CBO released a new issue brief on increasing disparities in life expectancy. Here I provide a brief summary of the brief (yes, I recognize the irony in that phrasing): * Life expectancy has been steadily increasing in the United States for the past several decades. Recent gains in life […]
In a low to moderate inflation world there is a very strong tendency for firms to raise prices once a year. As a consequence over half of the annual increase in the not seasonally adjusted core CPI occurs in the first quarter. It averages 54% in the 1st Q, 9% in the 2nd Q, 25% […]