Analogies are risky things, but I think there’s a useful analogy between (1) the belief that global conservation is a sufficient antidote to rising atmospheric CO2 and (2) the belief that herd immunity is a sufficient antidote to pandemics.Herd immunity is the model in which, as a deadly pathogen moves through the population, enough survivors with immunity will remain to attenuate further transmission, protecting uninfected individuals. The track...

Topic, we have not touched upon in a while at Angry Bear. The stats are there to support more rigid laws suppressing the illegal use of firearms and tighter controls on possession. I am sure there will be the naysayers. Ok, fine. Be polite in expressing an opinion. Don’t care about what Clarence thinks as he is no expert as well as the three-month Army wonder Samuel. My background? At one time I could part your hair at 500 yards with a stock...

by commenter Ten Bears Homeless on the High Desert It’s not about Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was my only endorsement in 2020. Kamala Harris is the reason I set aside the three times Joe Biden’s politics have harmed me, harmed my family, harmed the Oregon Timber Industry … and voted for him. And will cast my no party affiliated, independent vote for him again as he turned out the best president of my lifetime. It’s not about Kamala Harris....

Building Badly Needed Muti-Family Housing What is holding back more building of badly needed muti-family housing is the Fed Rate. The effort of course is to bring down inflation. As you read, I think you will discover the effort by the Fed is not achieving the goal it wishes to achieve. Indeed, its efforts to reduce inflation is hurting housing. Read the different scenarios and see if you agree. In a recent Employ America article, Skanda...

Perché yours truly non è un neo-ricardiano Così come la macroeconomia tradizionale del dopoguerra è stata criticata per essere fondata su una metodologia matematica assiomatico-deduttiva, ritengo che il nucleo del neo-ricardianismo sia basato sulla stessa metodologia. Per risolvere il problema di trovare una misura del valore che non sia influenzata dai cambiamenti nella distribuzione del reddito, Sraffa — in “Produzione di merci a mezzo di merci” —...

I’ve written another piece on the uneconomics of nuclear power in Australia The big unanswered question about nuclear power in Australia is how much it would cost. The handful of plants completed recently in the US and Europe have run way over time and over budget, but perhaps such failures can be avoided. On the other hand, the relatively successful Barakah project in the United Arab Emirates was undertaken in conditions that aren’t comparable to a democratic high-wage country like...

Book review of “Corruptible” as authored by Brian Klaas and reviewed by The one-handed economist, David Zetland on his blog. Brian Klaas published this book in late 2021, which was too early to discuss Putin’s second invasion of Ukraine but not too late to discuss Trump’s first term — let alone his first day. Those oversights do not matter because Klaas discusses the essential features of corrupt “leaders” in a way that helps us understand...

 – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. While several of the monthly updates I’ve discussed here in the past week have tiptoed in the direction of yellow caution flags, that’s not apparent at all in the high frequency data that is updated every week, much of which comes from private sources. In fact, this week for the first time in a long time, not a single coincident indicators was negative. A majority...

This obsession with government surpluses is misguided. Why? Because it overlooks the ticking time bomb of private debt. When private debt balloons, it sets the stage for economic crises. Take the 2007 housing crisis. Governments were patting themselves on the back for their fiscal discipline. Meanwhile, private debt was skyrocketing. The result? A catastrophic financial meltdown. Reducing government debt while private debt soars is like fixing a leaky faucet while your house is...

I recently led a research study comparing spending by large Canadian municipalities on homeless-related services and affordable housing. Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of the study:https://nickfalvo.ca/comparating-municipal-spending-on-housing-and-homelessness-in-canadas-major-cities/