Learning The Origin Of “Duality” Yesterday I learned that the person who first used the term “duality” in connection with linear programming, indeed with anything in economics, was John von Neumann in a private conversation with George Dantzig in 1947, the “father of linear programming.” That was the year Dantzig published his paper showing the […]
Robert J. Samuelson Goes Whole Hog Against Dems On Social Programs I want to follow Dean Baker in dumping on the Robert J. Samuelson Monday, 9/11/19 WaPo column on “The Democrats’ fairy-tale campaigns.” He may be right that lots of proposals have been put forward with no clear accounting of how much all of them […]
The North Korea Food Shortage Deepens Yeah, I know, the Iran situation is more in the headlines, but nobody knows anything and everybody is shooting off their mouths. I shall comment on that one when things settle down a bit. Instead I shall provide info less widely reported coming out of nkecon on the still-unreported-in-MSM […]
75 Years After The Longest Day Yes, I am watching “The Longest Day” on TMC. Have not seen it for decades, but this 75th anniversary of D-Day seems to be the time to do it. This will be a rambling post all over the place. I note that according to the film, it was German […]
Tariffs and Monetary Policy: Moral Hazard and Rent Seeking President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexico over immigration has pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell to say that if the tariffs lead to economic growth slowing, the Fed will cut interest rates. While the bump may be about to end, this announcement was followed […]
North Korean Near-Famine Leads To Dead Nuclear Negotiators It has not been officially reported by the North Korean govt, but long running rumors are now being reported by various serious media that Trump’s big pal Kim Jong Un has recently killed the top 5 officials of his govt who set up his failed summit with […]
Will China Play The Rare Earth Card In The Trade War? The rumor that China might play its “rare earth card” was the rumor today that helped push down both stock and oil markets according to a variety of reports. The trigger for this seems to have been a visit on May 26 by China’s […]
Khamenei Denounces Rouhani For Negotiating Nuclear Deal This has been reported by Juan Cole. Apparently Supreme Jurisprudent, Ali Khamenei of Iran in a speech to a large number of university students has seriously denounced President Rouhani for having negotiated the JCPOA nuclear agreement with the United States and other powers. During the negotiations Khamenei played […]
Emoluments As Grounds For Impeachment I have said this before, but am saying it again. The clearest grounds for impeaching Donald Trump are not his obstruction of justice on which so much attention is being focused, but in my view his blatant and unequivocal acceptance of emoluments from foreign governments, with this most clearly evident […]
Sanctions On Iran Are Hitting Hezbollah That is the top headline, upper right corner front page, of today’s Washington Post, a quite long article by Liz Sly and Suzan Haidamous. WaPo has been much criticized by Trump and his supporters for alleged “fake news” critical of his leaving the Iran nuclear deal while Iran was […]