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

Tiny Homes Improve the Economy and Are More Than Just Backyard Gimmicks (Edited)

Downsizing was the way to go as we got older and are kid free. Doing so had nothing to do with maintaining our larger house (2600 sq. feet) sitting on over 1/2 acre. I kind of liked maintaining it. It got me outside. In the new community, we are on a city-sized lot and have […]

Coronavirus special update: the annual summer wave has arrived

Coronavirus special update: the annual summer wave has arrived  – by New Deal democrat As I wrote at the beginning of this year, I would only post Coronavirus updates if there appeared to be something significant happening. And there is. There is a completely new alphabet soup of XBB subvariants that are competing with one […]

Why do physicians make so much?

According to this WaPo article, the average physician in the US earns $350K/yr. I didn’t click through to the actual data, but from the first table, I’m guessing that “average” means median, not mean. And physician income isn’t a Gaussian distribution—there’s a long right-hand tail for the specialties. Why is this? It looks to me […]

Open Thread August 8, 2023-Are Electric Vehicles Green?

I saw this the other day while looking for commentary to bring to AB. You can read the rest at the NYT. An easy read. Starter topic. Maybe EVs are not so environmentally friendly the way we are manufacturing them, the materials and the amounts used, and how we mine them. Raw materials can be […]

Scenes from the July employment report

Scenes from the July employment report  – by New Deal democrat On Friday I noted that the July employment report was a perfectly good, solid one in absolute terms, but that almost all the leading components were soft and weakening, as I would expect to see near the final stages of an expansion. Let’s take a […]

CDC and Covid

As taken from the Comments Section., Commenter RJS . . . the CDC reports that the trend in hospital admissions for Covid was up 12.1% to 8,035 over the most recent week, while the trend in the percentage of Covid deaths was again unchanged…if we go back three weeks on the CDC’s Covid deaths graph to the death totals which presumably […]

Commenting on Angry Bear

You have to be on topic to the post to which you are commenting. And “no” this is not my “site,” it is Dan’s site. I will follow his directives from the last time we talked. If you are a regular here, I have made this known as a moderator. Respect the author by being […]

Railroad unions are winning paid sick leave for workers

From December 2022, Angry Bear has been covering parts of the railroad workers efforts to achieve better conditions for conductors’ engineers and labor in general. It appears all of the work by the union is coming to pass. Railroad unions are winning paid sick leave for workers, The Stand, July 11, 2023 WASHINGTON, D.C. (July […]

Gasoline Standards Cuts For Gas Guzzlers Start in 2027

Typically, what happens with these types of regulations is delay for another 2 to five years before becoming active. This may occur. The other likelihood being the automakers going to court suing for a delay or a ruling on constitutionality. SCOTUS could again decide Congress can only make regulations and this capability was not delegated […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indictors for July 31-Aug 4

Weekly Indicators for July 31 – August 4, and long term forecast through H1 2024 at Seeking Alpha  – by New Deal democrat My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. No big changes in the data, but note that mortgage and other interest rates are up close to their peaks. This will operate to slow […]