Politicians like to say, “We are all in this together.” Of course, in most cases that is not true. They issue orders locking people in their homes and then proceed to party, travel, visit girlfriends and mothers. Here they issue orders making it difficult for middle class families to educate their kids in public schools, […]
The virtual format President Biden used for last week’s climate summit, to which he invited some 40 countries, shielded him from any physical threat created by two attendees – “killer” Vladimir Putin, and “thug” Xi Jinping, his description of the Russian and Chinese presidents. But he did invite them to Zoom along with me, to […]
On Thursday, Earth Day, President Biden has an opportunity to make good use of the virtual summit on climate change to which he has invited 40 world leaders, including China’s president, Xi Jinping. He can demonstrate the seriousness with which he views the warming of the planet by announcing that he will impose a border […]
The so-called Covid relief bill is passed and signed; the checks are out and the clock is ticking down to the spending explosion; cities are trying to figure out how to spend or squander their new cash; unions have been appeased by the bail-out of their pension plans; new entitlements have been put in place; […]
Attempting to produce Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark would be foolish. Attempting to contain global warming without the cooperation of China would be equally foolish. Unless President Biden can find some way to enlist China in the effort to reduce the rise in the planet’s temperature, it is doomed to failure. Fortunately, there is a way: […]
There are times when a small event reveals a large truth. The resignation of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission leaves the SEC with four members, two from each party. In ordinary times, one would expect pundits to offer their views on the effect of this and of possible candidates for the vacancy […]
Climate change, says President-elect Joe Biden, is “the number one issue facing humanity. And it’s the number one issue for me. Unchecked it’s going to actually bake this planet.” In response to their boss’ concern, the team conducting the administration’s vetting of job candidates, even those considered for relatively lower-level positions, “routinely asks ‘is the […]
The campaign has established important things. Joe Biden, who continues periodically to insist he is running for the Senate, is a nice man, empathy oozing from every pore. Trump is not a nice man, not an empathetic bone in his body. Trump supporters are hoping that Leo Durocher, then manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was […]
Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. That’s what we economists have been doing to cope with the possibility, some say certainty, that the planet is heating up in response to human activity. We have been asking politicians to support a carbon tax which many of their constituents are loath to bear, and the […]
There are times when events understandably command our attention and force us to concentrate on solving immediate problems at the expense of addressing their deeper meaning. This is such a time. The attack by Iran (the mullahs deny complicity) on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, and the strike at General Motors are two such events. The […]