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Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

“Seville: public water and private interests”

David Zetland is teaching a class and he is asking for commentary, Commentary to help his Water Scarcity students by commenting on unclear analysis, alternative perspectives, better data sources, in this post or maybe just saying something nice 🙂 to them. I am sure we can do better . . . “Seville: public water, private interests,” The one-handed economist David writes* The Mediterranean Basin is one of the regions that will suffer the most...

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Why Do Voters Trust Republicans on the Economy More Than Democrats?

This is another inciteful commentary by “annie asks you.” Just like Josh in the movie “Big,” I am raising my hand, stating “I don’t get it.” I don’t get it as to why people would prefer trump over Biden especially after two years of a recovering economy. Maybe many of them were not around for 2007/8 when the nation did not return to normalcy for years after the crash. A politician finally read the tea leaves, the nature of the economy (which is...

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February Mfg. and January Const. Continue Negative, while Auto Sales Improve

February manufacturing and January construction continue negative, while auto sales improve  – by New Deal democrat We started out yet another month of data with bad news in two leading sectors. The ISM manufacturing index has been showing contraction since November, and its more leading new orders subindex since September. And did so again in February, with the total index increasing slightly to 47.7, and the new orders index rebounding...

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Salve Lucrum: The Existential Threat of Greed in US Health Care

The biggest driver of healthcare cost is simply “pricing” increases reflected in hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare insurance. It was Dr. Donald Berwick while head of Medicare and Medicaid during the 1st half of the Obama administration has said, repeatedly, that at least 1/3 of Medicare dollars ware wasted on unnecessary tests, procedures and drugs that provide no benefit for the patient. Here is Dr. Berwick again discussing healthcare...

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Don’t take water for granted

by David Zetland (originally published at The one-handed economist) Don’t take water for granted In his 1987 hit, “Diamonds on the soul of her shoes“, Paul Simon sings: She said, “You’ve taken me for grantedBecause I please youWearing these diamonds” This lyric, although a bit paradoxical, has always resonated with me, and I’ve applied it in many “taking-for-granted” situations. One of them concerns clean water, which most of us have...

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Considering the Inconvenient Truth About Electric Vehicles

There are two good articles to be read here. Most is drawn from The Atlantic article and the other from The Detroit News. Some of the information is pulled from other articles to which the links are in the article. EVs may be the wave of the future. I think we will need better technology to power the electric vehicles and also lessen the energy pollution needed to make them. “Electric Vehicles Are a Status Symbol Now,” The Atlantic, Andrew...

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Norfolk Southern, are they for real? (Are we for real?)

The recent train derailment in Ohio of a Norfolk Southern train has me thinking. As this accident relates to our social order, there is just so many paths, perspectives and questions one can dive into. I almost could not decide what direction to address it all from. We have the capitalism/free market angle. Is this disaster an example of market failure? Is this government failure? Does this disprove the “too much government” argument? You know,...

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Lenin’s Tomb

Just finished “Lenin’s Tomb” by David Remnick. The book’s subtitle is “The last days of the Soviet empire.” At ca. 550 pages, it might seem a lot of text to devote to a few days or weeks, but that’s not what the book is really about. Remnick shows us how the history of the Soviet Union as codified by the Bolsheviks and Stalin became the foundational myth that drove that society. In the face of daily evidence that the USSR was fundamentally a...

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Declining population and diminished national power is bad news?

My Thoughts I am not sure what Prof. Dean means by elites. Was looking for an explanation. It may have zoomed by me if it is not obviously called out. In the beginning of his commentary, we read of declining population in China. The makeup of the population is older. Been there numerous times going from plant to plant and working with my counterparts there. Marvelous country to explore with the assistance of my associates there. Making the leap...

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— Rents —

In March, 2022, Pew Research released a study showing that in 2020, 23% of Americans spent more than half their income on rent. Since then, rents in most parts of the country have gone up 16% (because they could). Safe to say, the income of those 23% did not go up 16%. Rent increases play a major role in the current round of inflation. Though the percentage of increase in rent (inflation) was greater than most other items; the media has said...

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