On Sunday, the Tribune featured an article on millennials choosing to rent rather than buy homes. It was a bit fluffy, quoting as a “typical millennial” a 24 year old who said he wanted to be a renter for life, so as to be able to “pack up and go” but didn’t actually rent at all and still lived in his parent’s basement. The article then continues with some history on the federal government’s push towards increasing homeownership levels, and cites Greg... Read more
It's time to stop. It's time to acknowledge that your political opponents are not Evil Incarnate. Read more
Nicholas Kristoff has a column in the New York Times on child marriage — not in some far-off country, but here, in the United States. This is not the first time there’s been recent reporting on it. And when I first came across it, my instinct was to rationalize: surely those under-18 marriages are mostly 17 year olds, and live in communities where no one expects to go to college anyway, and where older teens are considered fully adult in... Read more
The AEI-Brookings Working Group on Paid Family Leave has come up with a family leave proposal, and I’ve been meaning to blog about it for a while — the trouble is that it involve reading a lengthy report, which I just haven’t managed to do yet. So as a shortcut I’ve scrolled down to the key details of their proposal: 70% of pay replacement 8 weeks $600 per week cap (equivalent to $45,000-ish covered salary) Both new mothers and fathers covered,... Read more
The Washington Post reports today that Attorneys general for the District of Columbia [Karl A. Racine (D)] and the state of Maryland [Brian E. Frosh (D)] say they will sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House. After a lengthy preamble around Trump’s failure to sell off his businesses, the Post provides details: The constitutional question D.C. and... Read more
Megan McArdle has a food post up today, on her experience of a Frenchified hamburger. And after making a few comments on that post, I thought I’d share my own related anecdotes here, from my time in Germany and various travels. Steak americain So a number of years back, I was at a training session in Brussels, and the group I was with went out to dinner, but I was on a stingy per-diem, not keen on spending much of... Read more
It would seem so, given the manner in which he questioned Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, about a piece he wrote in light of last year’s Wheaton College controversy. (See The Atlantic, and elsewhere.) As The Atlantic presents the story: Sanders took issue with a piece Vought wrote in January 2016 about a fight at the nominee’s alma mater, Wheaton College. The Christian school had fired a political-science professor, Larycia... Read more
I have a draft post waiting for my attention, about the coming Obama museum, and before I return to it, I wanted to ask you all: have you been to a presidential museum, and, if so, what are your impressions? Is it a “straight” history museum, or does it present the president as heroic? How much does it talk about that presidency specifically vs. the president’s life, or the general historical context? Thanks in advance! Read more
I’m just not paying any attention to this. Yeah, I know, I should be, but I’ve more or less decided to just see how it plays out before worrying too much about it. But I’m told this is a matter of great interest,and people are watching this intently. Hence, an open thread. Image: decontamination equipment from the “secured location” in Germany. More pics at the original post. Read more
That’s what’s on tap in Nevada, though there are few details available at the moment. Vox reports that The Nevada legislature passed a bill Friday that would allow anyone to buy into Medicaid, the public program that covers low-income Americans. It would be the first state to open the government-run program to all residents, regardless of their income or health status. The bill is currently sitting with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican. His office did not respond to an... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In