Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Trump Caves on Tariffs

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 before “American Independence day” plus 10%. Of […]

Powell Howl

Late and brief thoughts on Trump’s assault on the independence of the Fed. It’s old news.now, but one way in which Trump assaulted norms, shocked investors, then flinched when asset prices moved was his discussion of firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. To orthodox macroeconomists and also me this is an extreme heresy. […]

Confusion in the Camp of the Enemy

Trump’s tariffs have appalled all right-thinking people. They have also appalled many right wing people. Trump has long since lead us to the strange state of agreeing with Mitch McConnell, but now he has united all but the most servile right against him (unfortunately Trump serfs control Congress and maybe, the Supreme Court). The Wall […]

High Tariffs with International Value-Added Chains

Things are moving so fast, that I am a day late with this. I argue that Trump’s insane tariffs will, in some cases, impose higher costs on US than foreign manufacturers. There are two key issues. First tariffs are charged the full value of a good, not the value added in the target foreign company. […]

CAR VII

Here I report on research on off the shelf CAR T-cells (which was conducted beyond the reach of Trump, Miust and Vought)

Musk, USAID, and a Crazy Conspiracy Theory

Recently NBC and The Washington Post have reported that Elon Musk’s hatred of USAID and his decision to feed into a wood chipper (claiming authority that Trump let alone Musk doesn’t have) is based on an insane conspiracy theory spread by an conspiracy theorist called MIke Benz. According to the Post, when Musk tweeted that […]

NIH Grants Slashed

The Trump administration just slashed NIH grants. I think this terrible policy shift is entirely constitutional and legal. I think it is also a severe (entirely deliberate) blow to US Universities and a possibly fatal blow to biomedical research institutions. The new policy limits funds for overhead to 15% of the amount directly granted to […]

Republicans representing districts won by Biden

Calling on Repubs in Districts won by Biden to influence the Vote on the USAID, Medicaid, and to stand up to Trump. They might be scared and influenceable. It only takes 2 (soon to be one) voting with Democrats. Personally, I am interested in asking them to stand up to Trump, save USAID and vote […]

CAR V

As promised I won’t fill angrybearblog with my thoughts on biology which is not economics and about which I have no credentials to claim to be an expert. Instead I will post it at my personal blog. update: I am no longer confident that the post presents a good idea or even an interesting idea. […]