– by New Deal democrat I’ve been ambivalent about whether the mania for AI is a Boom or a Bubble. That’s because whether its use is transformative or, like Steve Jobs’ claims that the Segway would revolutionize transportation, not so much.  But what has become increasingly clear is that virtually the entire economy has been […]

The post The entire US economy is downstream of the AI buildout dam, and that dam is almost certain to fail appeared first on Angry Bear.

Its Saturday and I am on the run. So, I am being brief. Another Dean Baker piece. This time on Immigrants. The one thing I keep saying over and over again is about our replacement rate. This is not like after WWII when men came home from WWII. got married, and population increased dramatically. The […]

The post Birth Rate and Labor appeared first on Angry Bear.

Talking Election Politics Hers . . . It has been five years since we lived in Michigan. Mallory took office in 2019 as a State Senator. She appeared competent and I did support her running for office. Apparently, she has done well enough and is popular enough to run as a Federal Senator. Her opponent’s […]

The post Michigan Candidate’s Agenda to Root Out Corruption in Washington appeared first on Angry Bear.

You may have seen that Speaker Mike Johnson wants Social Security to be “fixed” after the midterms. The fact that he wants to wait until after the midterms tells you everything you need to know. He’s using “fixed” in the sense of what you do to your dog if you don’t want puppies. Republicans know […]

The post Mike Johnson touches the third rail appeared first on Angry Bear.

Factory construction has trended downward due to economic uncertainty, throughput improvements, material costs increasing, and increasing interest rates. Companies are not willing to risk investment at this time without a sound future forecast to utilize additional factory production. The surge in 2024 was driven by policies such as the CHIPS Act. Demand cooled as companies […]

The post Decreased Factory Utilization and Increasing Capacity appeared first on Angry Bear.

 – by New Deal democrat I just wanted to drop a brief note about this morning’s PPI report. In May headline producer prices rose 1.1% for the month (the second such increase in a row), and on a YoY basis increased 6.5%. Final demand goods prices are up 9.1% YoY, and final demand services up 4.9%: […]

The post Producer prices suggest 5%+ YoY CPI, and very soon appeared first on Angry Bear.

 – by New Deal democrat Last week I wrote that “we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of that change of regime, so it will be interesting to see if the negative YoY comparisons continue, or if they fade away. This week’s numbers are noteworthy in that regard, because they suggest that – maybe – […]

The post More evidence for the return of post-pandemic seasonality in jobless claims appeared first on Angry Bear.

Private healthcare insurance polices and pricing is more varied than Medicare. No surprise there. The only thing you may deal with in having Medicare is Supplemental. The ACA should be similar to Medicare pricing. ACA Marketplace plans and Medicare differ significantly in costs and pricing (Supplemental). Too much freedom or leeway was given to the […]

The post Hospital Pricing Rising Faster for Private Insurance? appeared first on Angry Bear.

Commentary by Andrew Sprung at his site: xpostfactoid. Besides the other factors, I will point out, Hospital Prices Have Risen Much Faster for Private Insurance Than Medicare Since 2019 per a KFF report in May of this year. The increases “represent approximately one third of total health care spending and accounted for 40% of spending growth from 2022 to […]

The post “What will the politicians do to hold healthcare corporations accountable for high costs?” appeared first on Angry Bear.

The NYT published an article reporting that RFK Jr has abandoned most of his responsibilities: “Mr. Kennedy has shown little interest in managing the details of work in his department, according to multiple colleagues,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote in the article. “Instead, they say, he is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations […]

The post Whatever we’re paying him, it’s too much appeared first on Angry Bear.

– by New Deal democrat Just as forecast by the Cleveland Fed, the CPI in May increased 0.5% – less than the increases in March and April, but still too high. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased only 0.2%. The YoY% gains both also increased, to 4.2% and 2.8% respectively. to increase to […]

The post May CPI is “less bad,” but bad enough to edge consumers closer to recessionary income levels appeared first on Angry Bear.