– The one-handed economist (site) Daniel Zetland . . . a political-economist from California who now lives in Amsterdam. I read this 2007 book by John Darwin months ago, but only got ’round to writing up my thoughts here now. That shouldn’t matter about 600 years of history that ended in 2000, but it does matter for […]
By now, we all know the Cliff Notes version of American’s founding: Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the colonists defeated the British at Yorktown and Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams and Franklin wrote the Constitution, which the 13 colonies/states ratified enthusiastically. As an antidote to those cliché histories, I read a couple of good books […]
Hmmm . . . Before the US conflict with Iran, Iran and Oman did not charge fees for passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This, according to the New York Times. And now? “Iran and U.S.-allied Oman are moving forward with plans to collect payment for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, despite public American […]
Trump Rewrites History and Ignores Its Lessons There are two famous quotes about history often attributed to Winston Churchill: In point of fact, Churchill wasn’t the original source of either. But those two sentiments are a useful way to look at the fight over American history currently being waged by the White House against the […]
Rail Passengers Association | Substack Bit of an Introduction. Having ridden in trains in other countries, I can see where having similar passenger rail services would benefit the United States. Rather than traveling by air, one could take a trip by passenger rail to another state several hundred miles away and arrive in better condition […]
The United States of America at 250: the enemy of Republics is entrenched power – by New Deal democrat On America’s 250th anniversary, the state of the Republic is not good. Ten years ago, after the 2016 election, I embarked upon a reading journey, to seek an answer to the questions: are Republics fragile? Are they […]
I read Michael Klein’s (executive editor of EconoFact) conversation with Roger Lowenstein on the role of government in the economy. It is not terribly long. Maybe 10-15 minutes in listening and a bit longer in reading for me. I like to read as I dwell on what I read. Then I will go back and […]
Every Once and A while someone says “I bet” if you compare this with that instead of today’s numbers you would find that such and such was different. Like such and such would have happened also. The occasion has arisen. One of Angry Bear’s readers and also a commenter has tossed down the gauntlet. He […]
As I explained multiple times. Turn out was less in 2024 that in 2020. 3 million people did not vote, The same numeric of ~ three million who voted for others did similar in 2024 and it had a larger impact. Turn out was less in 2024 by percentage of eligible voters 59.7% as compared […]
Introduction: Nearly one third of all corporate political spending on elections since the 2010 Citizens United decision has occurred in the current election cycle. This is months before the general election, a new report from Public Citizen. I suspect this is more for Republicans then Democrats. “‘A Disaster for Democracy’: Report Shows Surging Corporate Spending in 2026 Elections,” Common Dreams, […]