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

An Important Centennial

An Important Centennial Today marks the centennial of the Great October Socialist Revolution, known when I was young in the US as the Russian Revolution, and also perhaps more accurately described as the Bolshevik Coup. On March 8, 1917, people rose up from the streets behind women marching on International Womens’ Day, leading troops to […]

Economic Consequences of Populism

by Joseph Joyce Economic Consequences of Populism Who is the true populist: Bernie Sanders, who promises single-payer health care and college without tuition, or Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp”?  Jeremy Corbyn of the UK’s Labour Party, who wants to nationalize public-sector firms, or Marine Le Pen of France’s National […]

The Exchange Rate as a ‘Veil’

(Dan here…Biagio Bossone will be joining contributors to Angry Bear.  Here is his first post for AB concerning the impact of exchange rates) by Biagio Bossone      (Biagio BOSSONE is an Italian national,  currently advises the World Bank Group/IMF on financial sector development issues and technical assistance programs in several countries in Africa, Asia and […]

October jobs report: great utilization, decent growth, poor wages (reposted)

(Dan here….Corrected code to fit the format and reposted)  by New Deal Democrat HEADLINES: +261,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate down -0.1% from 4.2% to 4.1% U6 underemployment rate down -0.3 from 8.2% to7.9% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want […]

2017 Globie: “Grave New World”

by Joseph Joyce 2017 Globie: “Grave New World” Once a year I choose a book that deals with an aspect of globalization in an interesting and illuminating way, and bestow on it the “prize” of the Globalization Book of the Year (known as the “Globie”). The prize is strictly honorific—no check is attached! But I […]

Saudi Crown Prince Consolidates Power With Anti-Corruption Arrests

Saudi Crown Prince Consolidates Power With Anti-Corruption Arrests Everybody is against corruption, so it has become the new cool way to concentrate power in dictatorial societies to engage in an anti-corruption drive, as Putin and Xi Jinping have done.  Actually corrupt people may well be arrested, but somehow included in the set of those arrested […]

The Phillips Curve is Alive and Well and Living in Europe

What happened to the European Phillips Curve ? Recently many have argued that the Phillips curve has become the Phillips horizontal line. I am old enough to remember when the hot new idea in macroeconomics was that the long run Phillips curve is vertical so inflation varies but unemployment stays near the natural rate and […]

Different but Equal?

Here’s a fascinating recent article with the forbidding title of The landscape of sex-differential transcriptome and its consequent selection in human adults.  I’ll provide the abstract, and then a translation into English.  Here’s the abstract: Background The prevalence of several human morbid phenotypes is sometimes much higher than intuitively expected. This can directly arise from the presence […]

Not With a Bang, but a Whimper… Democratic Party Edition. An Op Ed.

A presidential candidate like Donald Trump should not be viable. Candidates he supports should not be viable. The existence of Donald Trump should be a boon for the Democrats. And, in fact, it has been. But it hasn’t been enough. Perhaps four (or eight?) years worth of results will tip the balance for Democrats, but […]