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

Interactions Between Black People and the Police

by Mike Kimel Interactions Between Black People and the Police A lot of Americans want the police reigned in, particularly when it comes to their interactions with Black people. Black people are more likely to be stopped by police than people of other ethnicities, and sometimes those stops end badly. My take on this issue […]

Clinton’s Judgment

by Mike Kimel Clinton’s Judgment Via the Washington Post, this quote from the NY Times: Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nation’s first black woman to be attorney general, who took office in April 2015. The Post article goes on: about the appearance of impropriety: Lynch remains the person responsible […]

Who Will Be the Next President?

by Mike Kimel Who Will Be the Next President? We don’t know much about Panama before the Spanish arrived other than that it fit the usual pattern you see just about everywhere – there were periods of bloody violence (wars, genocides) alternating with periods of some sort of coexistence.  After the Spanish arrived, there was […]

Male, Female, and Transgendered Athletes and the Future of Sports

by Mike Kimel Male, Female, and Transgendered Athletes and the Future of Sports Men and women don’t compete directly against each other in sports ranging from basketball to golf to track and field. This seems intended to simultaneously acknowledge and paper over the performance difference between men and women in those activities. The process is […]

Cash for Criminals

by  Mike Kimel Here’s a CNN story on “Cash for Criminals”: And so Operation Peacemaker was born. Loosely based on an academic fellowship, the ONS program invites some of the most hardened youth into the fold: often teenage boys suspected of violent crimes but whom authorities don’t have enough evidence to charge criminally. These fellows […]

GW is a Smart Man

by Mike Kimel GW is a Smart Man A few days ago, Keith Hennessey, who worked in GW Bush’s administration, wrote that the former president is a very smart man. Now, a smart person doesn’t have to be smart at everything. There are plenty of examples of very smart people doing very stupid things, particularly […]

Reagan and Rios Montt: The Company You Keep

by Mike Kimel Reagan and Rios Montt: The Company You Keep Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for genocide. I was born in the US, but my formative years were spent in South America in the 1980s. That the right wing Guatamelan military dictatorship was massacring unarmed civilians on a large scale […]

The Fed, Primary Dealers, and the Ineffectiveness of Monetary Policy

by Mike Kimel The Fed, Primary Dealers, and the Ineffectiveness of Monetary Policy The Federal Reserve’s primary tool for monetary policy is buying or selling securities, in particularly US notes, bills and bonds. But… it doesn’t buy and sell bonds to you and me. Instead, it deals with primary dealers – the complete list is […]