“Door-to-door mail delivery is about as American as apple pie,” NBC Bay Area reported back in 2013. “With the Postal Service facing billions of dollars in annual losses, that tradition could be virtually phased out by 2022 under a proposal in Congress.” The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee “approved a plan to move to cluster box and curbside delivery, which includes mailboxes at the end of driveways.” But that sentiment doesn’t include the boxes at the end of every driveway. (Multiplex Mailbox PC: K. Lloyd Billingsley) In recent years the Postal Service has installed multiplex units …
What Debt Ceiling?
Almost 50 years have passed since the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 became law. The act governs how elected officials are supposed to draft and approve a budget every year. Under the law, that process is supposed to go like clockwork. To say it doesn’t go like clockwork is an understatement. What does happen like clockwork are missed deadlines, rushed stopgap or omnibus spending bills to keep the federal government from shutting down, and debt ceiling crises. Debt ceiling crises rank among the fakest of political events in Washington, D.C. There is a kabuki theater element to the performative brinkmanship that takes …
Capitalism!
When Thomas Robert Malthus published his Essay on Population in 1798, explaining that population always tends to grow faster than the resources available to support that population, condemning most people to a level of income barely sufficient to survive, he was describing the history of humankind up to that point. The history of humankind goes back hundreds of thousands of years. Only in the past few hundred has economic progress raised most people out of poverty. What has been responsible for this remarkable increase in the global standard of living? Capitalism! Since its beginning, capitalism has had …
Ronald Coase’s Fitting Tribute to Adam Smith
The year 1776 is certainly a landmark year in history, and one of the reasons why is Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” which first appeared in print that year. In 1976, to commemorate the book’s bicentennial, University of Chicago economist and Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase wrote a pair of essays that discuss two of Smith’s great works—“The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and “The Wealth of Nations”—and their continued importance. This year marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth, and Coase’s essays once again make a fitting tribute. Here, I comment especially on …
From Power Struggles to Unity: The Opposition’s Plan to Challenge Maduro in 2024
Venezuela’s opposition has been seriously weakened in the last few months. Part of the reason is that Nicolás Maduro’s brutal dictatorship has survived every attempt to topple it with support from Cuba, Russia, Iran, and to some extent China. But some responsibility lies with the leaders of the opposition themselves, who have devoted an inordinate amount of time to internecine power struggles and, in some cases, engaged in acts of corruption that have tarnished its image. As the head of a National Assembly in which the opposition held the majority after the parliamentary elections of …
Following Their Leaders: How Political Anchors Shape Policy Preferences
A romantic notion of democracy depicts democratic governments as being accountable to their citizens and acting in their citizens’ best interests. Academic models of democratic government depict citizens and voters as having public policy preferences, and candidates and parties adjust their platforms to conform to these preferences. My new book, Following Their Leaders, explains that the direction of causation goes (mostly) in the other direction. Citizens and voters view their political identities as anchored on a party, a candidate, or an ideology and then adopt the public policy preferences of their anchors. Citizens get their …
True Spirit Lifted by Individual Courage, Tenacity, and Mental Toughness
Perhaps the best compliment to a movie is when viewers buy the book on which the story is based. That’s what happened after I watched True Spirit, a 2023 drama (Netflix) about the history-making sailing circumnavigation of the world by then 16-year old Jessica Watson (Teagan Croft, Titans, The Osiris Child). Watson’s story of individual courage, tenacity, and mental toughness allows this inspiring family drama to punch above its weight. A Firestorm of Controversy Watson’s quest generated a firestorm of controversy at the time (2009). Her journey raised important questions about parental responsibilities, teenage competence, …
New Bill Seeks to Recover COVID Funds Taken by Fraudsters
What could he do if President Biden were to get serious about recovering pandemic relief stolen by fraudsters? The question has to be asked because of Julie Su’s recent nomination to become the U.S. Labor Secretary. While serving as California’s Labor Secretary, Su famously did very little to combat pandemic unemployment insurance fraud other than leave it to her successors in office. Between April 2020 and July 2021, she burned through 15 months in which she could have taken action to recover stolen funds but did not. This prolonged inaction can be considered a gift for the …
Has the Discount Window Mystery been Solved?
On January 25th, I wrote about the increasing borrowing activity taking place at the Fed’s discount window. I commented that, despite popular perceptions, not all the borrowing at the discount window is driven by emergencies. But I also added that with rapidly rising interest rates, and the money supply contracting for the first time in decades and possibly the quickest that it ever has, the beginning of a liquidity crisis was nevertheless a distinct possibility. I wrote then: Nothing is conclusive yet. In about 18 months, the identity of the firms which have been tapping the …
Clear Skies Ahead? Doubts Arise Over Biden’s FAA Pick
“Our continuing mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world,” the Federal Aviation Administration claims. People who fly, and those who don’t, might wonder about Phillip Washington, Joe Biden’s pick to head the FAA. In a March 1 hearing, Washington faced a series of basic questions, such as: What kind of airspace requires an ADS-B transponder? What are the six types of special-use airspace that appear on FAA charts? What are the operational limitations of a pilot flying under basic med? What causes an aircraft to spin or to stall? What are …
You Can Choose Your Gender, But Not Your Race
I confess this does not make sense to me, perhaps just showing how out of touch I am with twenty-first-century social norms. Here’s a story about Raquel Evita Saraswati, who identified as a Muslim “woman of color” claiming Arab, Latina, and South Asian ancestry. Saraswati had a 20-year history of supporting Muslim women and girls, and was named Philadelphia NOW’s woman of the year in 2019. Now she’s been outed. It turns out that her birth name was Rachel Seidel and that, whatever her current religious beliefs, she’s actually white—“as white as the driven snow,” …
Nuke Bizzle, Unemployment Fraud, and AB-5: Julie Su’s Concerning Record
Julie Su’s irresponsible record on unemployment fraud did not prevent her from confirmation as Deputy Labor Secretary by a vote of 50-47. With Biden now tapping Su for the top post, another matter should come into play. As head of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), Su supported Assembly Bill 5, a veritable declaration against the independence of California workers. The measure primarily targeted independent truckers and rideshare drivers, but there was more to it. AB-5 also limited freelance writers, photographers, and videographers to 35 submissions per publication per year. Independent musicians also took a hit. For example, …
