By “why I blog” I mean, of course, “why I spend my time writing about politics/policy issues, rather than getting involved in politics”, and the “this” refers to the Illinois governor’s race.  The Tribune today reports that the latest polling shows millionaire businessman Bruce Rauner far ahead of his three GOP political establishment competitors. The survey showed Rauner at 40 percent support, more than his top two rivals combined. State Sen. Bill Brady pulled 20 percent and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford... Read more

Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone’s been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam that was causing water to drip through the bathroom window into the house. We don’t know whether there’s further damage inside the house or not, nor do we really know what kind of further roofing repairs may be required. (What’s more, we don’t really know what’s going on that we seem to be... Read more

Via marginalrevolution.com, an article in the Financial Times on the future of the German apprenticeship system: …in Germany, growing numbers of school leavers are choosing to go to university instead of starting an apprenticeship, triggering alarm that small businesses will struggle to fill skilled positions. …The number of young Germans starting an apprenticeship declined 4 per cent last year to 530,700, the lowest level since German reunification in 1990. Some 33,500 apprenticeships went unfilled, the most since 1996. …The reasons... Read more

Three disparate topics:  the minimum wage, Obamacare, and illegal immigration.  But they’re fundamentally all connected and pointing to considerable uncertainty about the future of our economy. The minimum wage:  people feel as if the economy has changed considerably from the way it was a decade or two ago, when minimum wage-paying jobs were typically held by teenagers getting their first work experience.  Or maybe a stay-at-home mom might work a retail job because it provided a flexible schedule — during... Read more

So the whole fallout from the CBO report (that is, the CBO report predicting people will drop out of the labor force due to the impacts of ObamaCare) is discouraging. To recap, there are two primary elements of people leaving the labor force or scaling back their work hours:  the cliffs and discontinuities of ObamaCare (which I’ve griped about before) and the core fact that, if you get more income, in some form, from the government, you need to earn... Read more

I looked at Amazon yesterday and the reviews were mixed: is a wooden or aluminum peel better for preparing the pizza, then sliding it off and onto the baking stone in the oven? Reader advice appreciated! Read more

So I wrote about the CBO report last night, and, in the end, was pretty tired after I finished really working through it and summarizing it. But here are the key points that people don’t seem to understand, as I read through blog posts and comments: 1) The CBO projection is for the years 2017 and afterwards, when they assume the economy will be “back to normal.” These are 2% fewer hours worked than would have otherwise been the case,... Read more

Part of the purpose of this blog is to be able to comment on articles/opinion pieces in the paper that I want to “talk back to” and there was one that fit this category in today’s Tribune: “Allow Catholic priests to marry; ‘I would have been a good priest.'” is the title in the online version of the story. (As usual, I can’t tell if this is publically available or behind a paywall that cookies let me past, but you... Read more

So I’ve been waiting all day to have the kids tucked in (OK, just the youngest gets tucked in; the older two are still working on homework but don’t need direct supervision) so I can get to this CBO report that everyone’s talking about. And I mean everyone. You don’t know what CBO report? Are you living in a cave? Or maybe you happened on this page at some point in the future. Anyway, this is the report that predicts... Read more

I suppose I’m showing my age if I quote Dan Quayle (hey, look it up yourself if you don’t know what I’m talking about) but two articles today really reinforce the fact that the American Left is pretty indifferent to whether women bear their children within or outside of marriage.  I guess Glen Reynolds would call this “21st century relationships.”  I don’t have a cute tagline for it, but may have to invent one, at the rate that these stories keep popping... Read more