Why Are Infrastructure Costs So High In The US? Sorry, but anybody wanting some simple answer on this one, especially an ideologically neat one, sorry, there is not one, Indeed, on this important issue, there is a large problem, but not remotely a clear answer regarding why there is this large and important problem. For […]
The Cornwall Paradox The County of Cornwall has been in the news as the site of the G7 summit, just ended. In today’s Washington Post an article “In Cornwall, a jarring contrast of power and poverty,” by Karla Adam and Loveday Morris, a paradox of this visit is highlighted and brought out, indeed, that Cornwall […]
The Zhou Enlai Paradox A bit over a half century ago when Henry Kissinger was organizing Richard Nixon’s visit to China, he was largely interacting on this matter with Zhou Enlai (Chou-Enlai in Wade-Giles transliteration). He reported that during their negotiations he asked Zhou what he thought of the French Revolution. Zhou replied that “It […]
Global Polls OK, so I think the nations surveyed are biased, but I have now seen two polls with roughly similar polls. So Pew, with a larger base and solid credibility has that among foreign nations polls in their nations data set showed an improvement in favorability rating for the POTUS have gone from 17% […]
Treasury Secretary Yellen Achieves A Victory This is her getting the G-7 finance ministers to agree to a minimum 15% corporate tax. It is easy to sneer at this. Some of the nations involved may not pass it. There are many problems with details, such as whether the tax would be on gross or net […]
My Latest Book Heck, I might as well brag here when I have the opportunity, and I do. So, just a couple of days ago my latest book came out from Springer Nature. It is called Foundations and Applications of Complexity Economics. I am not going to go on about it or its contents other than […]
Do Languages Get Simpler When They Get More Complicated? Oh, a minor diversion from the usual political economy stuff that goes up here. This is triggered by an article in last week’s The Economist on the nearly dead San language, Nluu. It has only two living fully fluent speakers alive, both in their 80s. The […]
The Trumpification of Xi Jinping The Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) has achieved great outcomes over the last several decades, especially after the late Deng Xiaoping took effective control of the nation from Maoist holdovers. He set a model of indirect and collective leadership in contrast with Mao Zedong who ruled nearly absolutely for nearly […]
Larry Summers Doubles Down On His Inflation Prediction But somehow becomes vaguer about exactly how this is going to happen and show up, but he wants the Fed to stop it in its track, goshdarnit. This is in a column appearing in the Washington Post, May 25, “The inflation risk is real.” Well, he does […]
Bibi Gets To Stay In Office (For Now) With the welcome cease fire in Israel-Palestine, it looks like Bibi Netanyahu has achieved his near term goal of remaining prime minister of Israel, thus not only remaining power but also out of jail, with barely anybody noticing that he has done this. His rival, Yair Lapid, […]