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

Arctic sea ice makes new record low annual max

“Arctic sea ice makes new record low annual max,” National Snow and Ice Data Center  – by New Deal democrat On Sunday I occasionally post about topics of interest unrelated to economics. So today, let’s take note of a significant milestone in global warming. Specifically, the arctic has just had its lowest peak ever for sea ice […]

About university endowments, or why Matt Taibbi is a hack

If I were Matt Taibbi’s prof, I’d give him a C for his article. He did some research on endowments, but he gives no useful context. Whatever Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post paid him, it was too much. The Trump Administration wants to use taxes on endowments to subsidize tax cuts to the 1% who […]

The Well Endowed

America’s colleges are hoarding billions, Matt Taibbi New York Post Of Colleges and Universities A short trip on the JHU site later I found myself at the Johns Hopkins Public Interest Investment Committee annual report, published in January.  There, I learned that “as of June 2024, JHU’s endowment comprised more than 4,700 funds, each supporting […]

The latest Republican assault on higher education

Earlier, it was a dramatic cut in indirect costs on all federal grants and outright cancellation of some grants. Now, congressional Republicans are mulling a steep tax on university endowments. “Republicans are considering increases to the university endowment tax to help reduce the national deficit and as a potential lever to force universities to comply […]

Exporting our talent

Fascist Europe experienced a brain drain in the run-up to WWII. Among the European refugees who worked on the Manhattan project were Hans Bethe, Rose Bethe, Felix Bloch, S.H. Bohine, Niels Bohr, Hans Courant, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and Edward Teller. Prizing ideology over intellect ended up being a loss for fascism and […]

The shame of Columbia University

Not quite the same as in the sixties when colleges were defiant to government intervention. And there were presidents and other government officials who would intercede on campuses. Kent State was the site of deaths and shooting of students by an untrained military who were in too deep over their heads and acted out of […]

Academic freedom, independence, and the business model of academia

From the time I started college at 18 until the time I retired at 69, I have been continuously in academia. Most of that time, I was a faculty member at a private university. For ten of those years, I was also Associate Dean for Research at my medical school. Once you’re on the inside, […]

Will Trumpism drive a brain drain in the US?

One problem confronting the Trump agenda is that they treat the US like a closed system. That’s a problem for tariffs, since there are plenty of other markets for foreign goods besides the US. And it’s a problem for the recruitment and retention of the world’s finest minds. Until now, US universities were a magnet […]

Recessionary Housing Report

February housing construction rangebound, but at recessionary or near-recessionary levels  – by New Deal democrat As usual, the month’s important housing data starts out with construction.  For a quick refresher, I follow this because housing typically leads the rest of the economy by a year or more. After the very leading, but very noisy and […]