One micron is about ten gold leaves thick. The gilded age, one. Since, and yet, there are those who would return the nation to that time. To their minds, it was the best of times; that all that need be done was rid the nation of the odious Progressive and New Deal Era laws that […]
Coronavirus dashboard for February 23: the Omicron wave has receded by almost 90%; what about deaths? No economic data today (Feb. 23), so let’s update the situation with COVID-19. My usual source of graphs, 91-Divoc, is down today, so less elaborate, cluttered graphs from the NYT site to follow. The Omicron wave peaked in the […]
Vladimir V. Putin Loses His Mind And Becomes A War Criminal Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has just announced a “special military operation” to “de-Nazify the Ukrainian government” so as to halt the supposed “genocide” being committed against Russian speakers in Ukraine. There is not a shred of justification for any of this. The extreme […]
A Story Treehugger has been spotlighting this famous Andy Singer cartoon since 2007. “Treehugger, Sustainability for All” received a boost from Slate in and around 2006 when I was a “starred-commenter” (don’t ask) at Slate’s “Moneybox (Daniel Gross)” and “Best of the Fray.” Slate management decided to blow the place up and eliminated the comments sections […]
Russia has just attacked Ukraine. US policymakers seem to agree that we should impose severe economic sanctions (but definitely have no US boots on Ukrainian ground). What can the US do without firing a shot ? I think the US can impose extreme costs on Russia (hurting Russians other than Putin who are not to […]
Recent New Yorker article, I read, “The Fight Within the American Medical Association“ What I found interesting is the AMA’s history in support and lack of it for better healthcare. It is going both ways while slowly advancing towards Single Payer. Out of necessity, the AMA has started to move closer to the reality of […]
The Minsky Moment In Eastern Ukraine Oh, I cannot resist taking that phrase from a recent Economist article about the separatist Donbass republics, the Luhansk Peoples’ Republic (LPR), and the Donetsk Peoples’ Republic (DPR). The official recognition by V.V. Putin of their independence brings about the end of the Minsk II Accord negotiations that have been going […]
Yesterday we saw that libertarian economist Donald Boudreaux applauds Joe Rogan for uncritically “airing ideas” that undermine confidence in COVID vaccines. Why does Boudreaux approve of this? Since he is a libertarian, you might think it is because misinformation is liberty, or something. But no. He claims that vaccine skepticism is actually reasonable (my bold): […]
RJS, MarketWatch 666, Retail Sales Rose 3.8% in January; Prior Months’ Revisions Boost 4th Quarter GDP Seasonally adjusted retail sales increased 3.8% in January after retail sales for December were revised a bit lower, but November sales were revised somewhat higher…the Advance Retail Sales Report for January (pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that our seasonally adjusted […]
Libertarian economist Donald Boudreaux began a recent blog post with a quote about the dangers of government censorship, and then offered up this comment: “Rogan deserves applause for airing ideas about Covid and vaccines that challenge the official “Science.”” Government censorship is dangerous, but this doesn’t mean Rogan should be applauded for credulously (or deliberately) […]