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

Jobless claims rise, but still mainly lower YoY: post-pandemic residual seasonality still at work?

 – by New Deal democrat The December JOLTS report that was delayed from Tuesday is scheduled to be released later this morning. I may cover it today, or may delay until tomorrow, since there won’t be a jobs report. In the meantime, let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims which, to reiterate, are a […]

The State of Freight is Mainly Recessionary

– by New Deal democrat This morning, we were supposed to get an actual, on-time JOLTS report for December. But with Pastor Mike Johnson having done what he does best, i.e., keeping the House of Representatives out of session while critical deadlines pass, the BLS announced yesterday that several reports, including both Friday’s jobs report for […]

TACO comes to Harvard*

Trump quietly chickened out on his effort to extort $200 million from Harvard University. “Harvard has been the top target in Trump’s sweeping campaign to exert more control over higher education. Hard-liners in his administration had wanted Harvard to write a check to the U.S. Treasury as part of a deal to address claims that […]

Thinking about a college degree

I grew up in Oak Ridge Tennessee in the ‘60s. At the time, it was a town with one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the nation. Both of my parents were college grads. So, I took it for granted that most Americans graduated from college. I didn’t know until I was […]

Some Potentially Interesting Sunday Articles

In the past I would list articles for Sunday reads which I thought might be interesting for Angry Bear readers. I believe these might be such. Just supplying a sentence or two for each article to pique your interest. Angry Bear gets no monetary reward for doing this. We just try to interest our readers. […]

Book Review: “Land is A Big Deal”

Taxing land and not improvements according to the value of the land? Sounds like a novel idea. Review: Land is a Big Deal – The one-handed economist, Daniel Zetland OB recommended this 2022 book by Lars Doucet (LD) because I was asking for advice on lowering rents in the NL. LD writes with a different style from […]

Women in Clinical Trials

The facts remain that many women were not included in clinical trials which a hole in the testing wider when the numbers are compared to Men in Clinical Trials. No doubt, there is a difference in reaction to various medicines. Throughout history, doctors have considered women’s bodies atypical and men’s bodies the “norm,” despite women […]

Stale data watch: construction spending for October — more “green shoots”?

– by New Deal democrat Originally housing permits and starts through December were supposed to be updated this morning, but that has now been put off another week. In the meantime, we did get some data, albeit stale, about the important leading sector of construction, in the form of the construction spending report through October. And […]

Book Review: “The Edge of the World”

Review: The Edge of the World – The one-handed economist I picked up this 2014 book by Michael Pye due to my recent interest in histories of Europe (my new “homeland”), and I found it fascinating. The subtitle (A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe) shows why it may be interesting to me, […]