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

Consumer price inflation: once again, all clear except for (slowly disinflating) shelter

 – by New Deal democrat The story of consumer prices in May is the same as it has been for the past several months: virtually everything except for shelter costs, and the even more lagging sector of transportation services, were somnolent. If the Fed wanted to, it could have declared victory many months ago. To […]

Deportation for thee but not for me

Stephen Miller has pointed ICE to Home Depots as magnets for undocumented workers (usually gathered outside, hoping to snag a day’s work). But to paraphrase Willie Sutton, why not go where the immigrants are? “Undocumented immigrants are concentrated in cities for various reasons but by no means only in cities. Cities have communal and ethnic […]

A look at the goods producing sector

 – by New Deal democrat As per usual for the week after the employment report, there is no new data until Wednesday’s CPI report. So let’s take a further look at some of the information from Friday’s report, as well as several other reports from last week in the goods-producing and sales sector. In the 40 […]

A Handout to the Wealthy

This report or document is one year old. It still has a foundation for what is being said. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne assumed the office in 2023. Previously he served as State Superintendent of Schools from 2003 to 2011. Obviously, he has the background or does he? Not sure. Universal school vouchers […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators for June 2 – 6

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Very slowly the effects of price increases and supply disruptions from the tariffs are making their way into the data. This week was the first suggestion it may have begun to affect consumer spending. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you […]

MedPac Report to Congress on Medicare and Medicare Advantage

Rewrite of important points on Medicare and the over payments to commercial MA plans. This is not the entire Chapter 12 MedPac report to Congress. Although, you may think it is as this a rather long post even after I boiled it down. Why Chapter 12? Simple . . . It talks about the rip-off. […]

Trump has destroyed US science

My chairman predicts that the proposed NIH cuts will be a “nothingburger.’ Even if the budget cuts don’t come to pass (and I’m pretty sure the indirect costs cuts will stick), the damage will already have been done. Creative, energetic American scientists who seek academic positions will move to other countries. Back in 1986, I […]

What waste, fraud and abuse?

These days, it’s fashionable for right-wing Republicans to accuse those who disagree with their extremism as being Marxists, socialists or communists. Of course, they are using these words as epithets, not based on their actual definition. Also, it’s fashionable for right-wing Republicans to claim they’re not cutting the federal budget, they’re only cutting waste, fraud […]

Getting to know the Federal Workforce, part 2 

Brief commentary taking a look at the makeup of the Federal Workforce. As you can see the Department of Defense has the greatest number of employees. The next largest is the Department of Veterans Affairs. I posted this piece so as to allow Angry Bear readers understand the size of government. This is not a […]

Punishing people for their circumstances, not just their actions . . . “Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks”

I changed the order of this article so as to attribute the authors and others in the beginning rather than near the end of this piece. I am reposting this article to Angry Bear Blog and attributing the authors, others, and any organizations which may have played a part in writing this piece. The why […]