In the news yesterday, the Government Accounting Office released its report on the number and percentage of individuals receiving federal aid such as Medicaid and food stamps who were employed by such major employers as Walmart and McDonald’s. The study was, as is the norm for such studies, not initiated by the GAO, but based on a request from Sen. Bernie Sanders, and, as the rhetoric and reporting on the study makes clear, aimed to criticize those employers for offering... Read more
So if I were a credentialed economist, or even had any specialized education in the subject, I’d write this at Forbes. But I’m not/I don’t, so I won’t. But I have spent the greater part of the weekend working with my teen to catch him up in his AP Econ class, and we’ve been going over the various graphs and concepts and, in particular, the connection between monetary supply and inflation that appears to have vanished in the United States.... Read more
Yes, I’m going to talk about electoral fraud, and I use that phrase deliberately to imply something beyond mere “voter fraud” which suggests merely voters committing fraud, rather than the officials accepting and tabulating the votes doing so. I will precede all of this with the statement that the best outcome of the election, given the alternatives, is that which we (likely) have: Biden as president and a GOP Senate to check his desires. But nonetheless: questions of potential fraud... Read more
Regular readers at Forbes will have noticed that, as of November 1st, there is now a paywall. I’m not happy — understandably so, as this will cut into views of the articles I write at Forbes, which matters both with respect to the compensation I earn and my ability to share my opinions with the world. How much it will impact views, I don’t yet know (and honestly, pageviews have been pretty lousy lately, and I’m not sure if it’s... Read more
Ever have one of those days, when you just can’t focus on the work at hand? I have multiple articles sitting in draft form at my Forbes writing platform — on the Secure Act II, CPI for Social Security, and Illinois’ retirement income tax exemption — and I can’t muster the will to write about any of them, as I’ve been dealing with a tension headache all day and, much as I hate to admit being affected by politics, the... Read more
Longtime readers will know that I post at this site much less often than used to be the case, what with writing at Forbes and elsewhere instead. One of my projects is running for school board, which, for the moment, consists largely of collecting signatures for nominating petitions due in December (yeah, I have to get moving on that — you don’t really need all that many, but they have to be exactly right to not get stricken), and following... Read more
If Donald Trump was trying to make corruption charges stick on Biden (the media’s refusal to report on the story means they won’t) in last night’s debate, Biden was trying every bit as much to drill home the point that 545 children who were separated from their parents at the border, have not been reunited. What’s more, according to an ACLU court filing, as reported by ABC News, the group working to match up children and families was unable to... Read more
It’s the second presidential debate! And here are my comments, live-blog style. Scroll down to the bottom for my ultimate thoughts. But first: I apologize for the picture, which actually does not represent what went on at this debate. The moderator says: mikes will be muted unless it’s your turn to speak. To Trump: how would you lead the country in the next phase? Trump: a world-wide pandemic, spikes in Europe right now. Mortality rate down 85%, excess mortality rate... Read more
Yes, “science” in scare-quotes, because of two events which concern public understanding of science, or lack thereof; in the first case, a matter of reporting and, in the second, misgovernance here in Illinois. First, reports yesterday and today that a vaccine trial participant has died. In fact, this participant had received the placebo version and died of Covid so there is nothing newsworthy in the report, no cause for concern, and no reason at all for the study to be... Read more
Are you watching the hearings? Here’s a rant. Some of this I’ve likely said before in other contexts, but here you go. In the first place, Donald Trump has the legal right to appoint Barrett regardless of what McConnell may or may not have done 4 years ago. The fact that early voting has started in some localities, does not make Trump any less the president, and he remains president until Inauguration Day, and gets to do all the things... Read more
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