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

Postal Service Changes Have a Disproportionate Impact on Rural Areas

The results of US Postmaster General Louis Dejoy’s efforts to improve US Postal Service in the United States. Steve Hutkins and Mark Jamison have been following USPS issues for years and they have been featured on Angry Bear going back to 2016. This particular piece has been taken from Steve Hutkins site: “Save the Post […]

“We’re going to end up shooting some of them.”

My last year in the Marne Corps, I was given the task of chasing prisoners. And taking them to the Brig, to the Commissary, to Disbursing, etc. There was not much of a threat from these guys as revenge would have been extracted in the Brig. Attacking an NCO was not a smart idea either. […]

The future of journalism

Jonathan Last has an excellent piece at The Bulwark on the clusterf*** that is the Bezos WaPo and what it says about the business model of journalism in America. “The internet revolution was about lowering to zero the marginal cost of distributing content. The AI revolution is about lowering to zero the marginal cost of […]

New home sales continue rangebound, prices continue to decline, inventory continues to rise

 – by New Deal democrat This morning’s report on new home sales for June indicated that sales continue to be rangebound, YoY prices continue to decline, and inventory of homes for sale continue to rise. This complicates the story of rebalancing between new and existing homes. To recapitulate, while new home sales are the most leading measure […]

Trump wants to end capital gains tax on home sales

Recently, Trump said he was “thinking about” ending capital gains taxes on home sales. Who benefits? “The biggest beneficiaries of such a change will likely be longtime homeowners in the country’s more expensive housing markets. “Removing or increasing the capital gains limit — currently $250,000 for single homeowners or $500,000 for married couples — on […]

Rural Hospitals Closing Leaving Millions with No Hospital Care

Millions of Americans No Longer Have Hospital Care in Their Community Over the past decade, more than 100 rural hospitals have closed. As a result, the millions of Americans who live in those communities no longer have access to an emergency room, in patient care, and many other hospital services that citizens in most of […]

Do Tariffs have a Purpose Other Than Enriching Trump?

Traditionally, tariffs have been used to protect domestic industry, particularly agriculture and labor-intensive manufacturing. Trump has argued that his tariffs will return manufacturing to the United States and further that they will raise revenue helping offset the $3.4 trillion increase the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will add to the debt over the […]

Jobless claims: clear evidence of a break in trend to the downside

 – by New Deal democrat Last week I suggested that there might have been a break in the trend of higher YoY jobless claims, but there was not enough evidence yet. It is fair to say that this week’s report supplied that evidence. Initial claims declilned another -4,000 to 217,000, the lowest weekly number since mid-April. […]