The “Trump Effect” On Happiness In a column in yesterday’s Washington Post, Dana Milbank has written on “Trump has made our lives worse. Here’s the proof.” He labels this apparent outcome of the “Trump Effect.” Since 1972 the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago has annually studied the nation’s mood. They […]
The Danger Of Fascism With The Death Of RBG I try to avoid these terms like “fascism,” but it has become clear that Donald J. Trump actively seeks to become an at least authoritarian leader of the US, indeed openly arguing that the Constitution’s limit of only two terms should not hold for him. We […]
Au Revoir, Robert J. Samuelson For quite a few years not so long ago I was regularly posting here variations on “Today is Monday, so on the WaPo editorial page Robert J. (not related to Paul A.)* Samuelson is calling yet again for Social Security benefits to be cut,” and he did indeed do that […]
The Bahrain-Israel Mutual Recognition This freshly announced mutual recognition follows the one between the UAE and Israel, which set a new pattern, with Bahrain and possibly others (Oman?) predicted to follow. I am not surprised it was Bahrain that was next, although it may prove to be the only one. There are several reasons why […]
How Big Of a “Hoax” Is That “Dirty Dossier”? In the wake of the Atlantic story by Jeffrey Goldberg about President Trump reportedly referring to the dead Americans lying in the Aisne-Marne Cemetery near Paris as “losers” and “suckers,” along with a lot of other embarrassing things for him, Trump has called Goldberg a “slimeball” and that […]
Should We Fear A Reappearance Of Inflation? In today’s Washington Post Robert J. Samuelson has raised the possibility that the Federal Reserve may be setting the US up for a reappearance of inflation. He invoked the 1960s and 1970s when supposedly the Fed allowed inflation to get out of control out of a supposedly misguided […]
There Will Be No Postponing Social Security Taxes Among the items that President Trump issued an “executive action” about three weeks ago was that for people earning less than around $104.000 per year, their fica taxes were to be postponed until Jan. 1, not cut, merely postponed, although Trump made noises that if he is […]
An Increasing Anomaly In The US Balance Of Payments On Econbrowser Menzie Chinn has posted about an increase in the scale of US international net indebtedenss. Since the late 1980s the US has been a net debtor internationally, borrowing more from abroad then we are lending and investing there. The increase in this net indebtedness […]
Remembering The Bombing Of Sterling Hall A Half Century Ago A half-century ago at 3:42 AM on Monday, August 24, 1970, the New Year’s Gang set off an ammonium nitrate bomb in the back of a Ford pickup truck next to Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. They were aiming it at the […]
Whining About Lack Of Academic Leadership At my so-called university named for the fourth president, the slave-owning “Father of the Constitution.” No, I am not going to talk about the racism issue, which there is some effort to deal with on campus, notably in renaming three buildings named for Confederate figures, with our Provost originally […]