The Washington Post has a story on ACT scores: New results from the nation’s most widely used college admission test highlight in detailed fashion the persistent achievement gaps between students who face disadvantages and those who don’t. Scores from the ACT show that just 9 percent of students in the class of 2017 who came […]
ACT Scores and Achievement Gaps
Another Assault on the PPACA Coming in 2017
The Present If you thought it was over, it is not. Now that Schumer/Pelosi have removed the debt limit issue in front of Republicans with a Trump agreement, one more impediment to assaulting healthcare has been cleared away. John, I have cancer and have healthcare, McCain has come out to support a bill proposed by […]
Trump and International Finance
by Joseph Joyce Trump and International Finance International trade and immigration were flashpoints of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and in his first year he has shown that he intends to fulfill his promises to slow down the movements of goods and people. Last month negotiations over NAFTA began with Canada and Mexico, with the U.S. […]
The Othering of “Economic Illiteracy”
Noah Smith has written a column at BloombergView, “Don’t Believe What Jeff Sessions Said About Jobs,” which scolds Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “terrible economics.” That may be a bit like carping about Charles Manson’s hairstyle or critiquing David Duke’s academic integrity. But there is something far more dangerous going on with Smith’s knee-jerk invocation […]
The single most important fact this Labor Day
(Dan here…lifted from Bonddadd blog; better a little late than miss it) by New Deal democrat The single most important fact this Labor Day On Labor Day, highlighting the single most important secular problem in the US economy: If there is a silver lining, it is that the hemorrhaging has stopped since the end of […]
Why Are We Not Keeping Track Of The Dead From Hurricane Harvey?
Why Are We Not Keeping Track Of The Dead From Hurricane Harvey? It is not surprising that as Hurricane Harvey has finally moved off the Atlantic coast and is over, and the flood waters recede in the various places that it caused damage, it is unsurprising that reporting has moved onto the inside pages of […]
Sessions, Krugman, DACA and the Lump-of-Labor Fallacy
Now may be a good time to remind people that there can be bad arguments for good causes. There may even be good arguments for bad causes. Sessions is wrong: The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian […]
Whats In the News . . .
Quite a few things going on requiring some type of commentary. Trump can certainly get people going in different directions away from him. It is important to recognize these issues without losing sight of what Trump has done in stealing an election. Just a few things I have noticed in the news. DACA “But today, […]
From the Onion to the Times of London… And Back Again to be added soon
Jô Soares, a well known Comedian turned political commentator (think Al Franken but not in the Senate) in Brazil, used to do a recurring skit about a former general who woke up from a coma. The rib was, the general had gone into the coma while the country was still ruled by a military junta. […]