Tag Archives: politics

RJS, MarketWatch 666 “February” Durable Goods: New Orders Down 2.2%, Shipments Flat, Inventories Up 0.4% The “Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for February” (pdf) from the Census Bureau reported that the value of the widely watched new orders for manufactured durable goods decreased by $6.0 billion or 2.2 percent to $271.5 billion in February, the first decrease in five months, after January’s...

As I noted previously, Congress has somehow failed to provide funding for COVID vaccines and treatments.  This is a major policy error, an error that could kill many tens of thousands of people if not corrected. You might think that spending on vaccines and treatments would be something we could all agree on, regardless of our other differences on COVID policy.  After all, even libertarians who oppose mask and vaccine mandates and social...

Between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and COVID outbreaks in China, it certainly seems likely that supply shortfalls and upward pressure on prices will continue.  This raises difficult questions about politics and economic policy. On the political side of the ledger, I think that President Biden’s strategy should be predicated on continued inflation; if inflation subsides people will be happy and he will benefit politically no matter what he...

I. Kant, even [embedded content] The grinning mug on the right of the YouTube Fox News screen above is Allen C. Guelzo, a historian of the Civil War and biographer of Abraham Lincoln. Guelzo is also a purveyor of a bizarre theory that Immanuel Kant was the progenitor of critical theory, critical race theory, Marxism, Jim Crow, and “every dictatorship in-between”: But critical race theory may also be the most irresponsible way to think...

Biden has done a pretty good job managing the world reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.  But speaking in Poland, Biden declared that Putin cannot remain in power.  This comes on top of his earlier declaration that Putin is a war criminal.  From WAPO: White House officials were adamant the remark was not a sign of a policy change, but they did concede it was just the latest example of Biden’s penchant for stumbling off...

Ever since maybe five hundred years before this current era, maybe even before then, demagogues, in their quest for power, have appealed to ignorance and the lowest common denominator while belittling reason and rational thinking. Of late, any listing of such should include Huey Long, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, most if not all red state republican politicians, and Donald Trump. If the demagogue is one who panders for power, what...

To be very clear; there is no chance (as in zero, nada, ganz sicher nicht, rien, none) that NATO will invade Russia. Never was. There is no chance that the United States would ever invade Russia (everyone knows we only invade much smaller countries). No one knows the both better than Vladimir Putin. The fear of invasion by NATO, the EU, or the United States was not why he invaded Chechnya, Georgia, and now Ukraine. Putin invaded Ukraine because,...

Keisha Russell Must be Censured for her Plagiarized Senate Testimony Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. — Voltaire Keisha Russell is a propagandist for the “First Liberty Institute” who they grace with the title of “counsel.” It looks from her resume that the counsel she provides consists of appearing on right-wing cable news and doing speaking engagements. Her bio at First Liberty doesn’t mention...

Why War Might Go On Longer  An unfortunate reason the current war in Ukraine might go on longer than it should (with the should here being that it should never have happened in the first place, and the sooner it stops the better, with the onus here clearly on V.V. Putin to stop it as he started it without any justification), is that wartime leaders get a puff in their popularity at least for awhile and are let off the hook on domestic problems. ...

So says Martin Kulldorff: Surprising choice of @ashishkjha as @JoeBiden's new Covid coordinator. Not only was he wrong promoting lockdowns, school closures and vaccine passports, he mischaracterized and bullied other scientists by calling them "clowns". A clown would do a better job as Covid coordinator. https://t.co/E3kJQ1mkh6— Martin Kulldorff (@MartinKulldorff) March 22, 2022It seems like Jha did call Kulldorff a clown.  (Kulldorff was an...