What can we expect in 2023 about future human prospects? Will current threats to long-term human survival, continue to increase or will they begin to diminish as a consequence of responses to current threats?” We need governments everywhere to recognise the very serious threats that now face our species. There are now 8 billion humans Continue reading »
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Benedict the 16th was not one of my favourite Catholic churchmen. But like his predecessor John Paul II, I always cut them some slack, given their personal encounters with chaos and depravity within their European cultures. A young JPII literally carried acutely weak survivors out of the liberated Auschwitz, in his native Poland in 1944. Continue reading »
It would not be an exaggeration to call Sir Donald Bradman, cricket’s most metronomic and gluttonous of batsman (runs wise), a counter revolutionary. On the surface, cricketers like to imagine themselves to be above politics and devotees of a game so complex it would lobotomise any darting political mind. In practice, cricket has invited the Continue reading »
Stigma is an awful burden for business. But what if – for some companies – stigma is an asset? That’s what I and an international team of researchers set out to investigate in a new paper published in the Journal of Management Studies. We examined how consumers around the world responded to firms in stigmatised industries Continue reading »
The GSCPI peaked at 4.3 standard deviations above its historical mean at the end of 2021, after which it declined substantially. The initial period of decline saw it drop to 2.8 by March 2022, after which it temporarily increased in April, primarily due to pandemic lockdowns in China and the Russia-Ukraine war. The GSCPI then experienced five consecutive months of declines, reaching a low of 0.9 in September. However, the past three months have witnessed a pause in the reversion to the historical average, with the index increasing by a total of 0.29 points in October and November before declining by 0.05 points last month, leaving the total three-month increase at about a quarter point. Synchronously, we have seen a worsening COVID situation in China. The goal of this post is to examine how much of the resurgent upward supply chain pressures can be attributed to China’s evolving policies in response to the current outbreak....Liberty Street Economics — FRBNY
Global Supply Chain Pressure Index: The China Factor
The Jan. 6 committee’s work investigating the Capitol insurrection has been incredibly impressive. Investigators have uncovered new and damning information about Donald Trump’s culpability in the violence of Jan. 6; they’ve reinvented the congressional hearing format to tell a dramatic story and grip the attention of a distractible public; and they’ve shown just how capable Continue reading »
Middle East Eye analyses figures of record Israeli violence in 2022 in which the majority of victims were civilians, including children and journalists. Israeli forces have killed more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2022 than they have in a single calendar year since the Second Intifada, according to data compiled by Middle East Eye. At least 220 people have Continue reading »
We’ve got us a communicator If you weren’t up late last night or were out partying or something you probably missed Hakeem Jeffries’ speech after the vote making Kevin McCarthy speaker.It’s a good one. Let’s hope he’s as good at organizing the Democrats as he is a speaker. If he is, he will be a successful leader.
What has always bothered me about the “experimentalist” school is the false sense of certainty it conveys. The basic idea is that if we have a “really good instrument” we can come up with “convincing” estimates of “causal effects” that are not “too sensitive to assumptions.” Elsewhere I have written an extensive critique of this […]
...they get REALLY wacky. (Thanks to Roberto)
Wells Fargo has terminated its vice president of operations in India after he allegedly urinated on a 72-year-old woman while they both flew business class aboard a recent Air India flight. (Thanks to pharmaross)
Pigeon wearing crystal meth 'like a backpack' caught inside B.C. prison yard (Thanks to Roberto and B&C)
A group of burglars were caught off guard — and on camera — in Alhambra, when they accidentally broke into a diaper cleaning business instead of the medical marijuana dispensary next door. (Thanks to Ralph)
Huge boa constrictor snake found in carry-on baggage (Thanks to Ralph) Update: It was an emotional support snake. (Thanks to pharmaross)
The New York Times had a major article reporting on how many people in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan are being forced to work well into their seventies because they lack sufficient income to retire. The piece presents this as a problem of aging societies, which will soon hit the United States and other […]
The post Contrary to What the NYT Tells You, the Problem in An Aging Society is Distribution appeared first on Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Is the Obstruction of Justice Caucus Why is this unsurprising? Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave away the store he’s so desperate to manage. Here’s what CNN reports he promised GOP extremists in exchange for their votes: Kyle Cheney scrutinizes the proposed GOP bill to establish that Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Those provisions did not appear in earlier versions, Cheney notes. Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) adds, “A Jim Jordan drafted document allowing for the interference into ongoing criminal investigations is what got Scott Perry, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, and Andy Biggs — all of whom sought pardons — to allow McCarthy to get a gavel.” “I would like it be presented as the scandal it is,” Wheeler continues. “But have very little hope in the competence or integrity of many congressional reporters.” I’m already looking for any deus ex machina than can spare the republic from the MAGA arsonists before the battle over raising the debt ceiling spawns a global financial crisis this fall. Jack Smith is one, possibly. Fulton Co., Ga.
Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.
Biden's going to have to mint the trillion dollar coin.
Left-wing president shows what can happen with political will to do what’s right for ordinary people New Brazilian president Lula da Silva is reversing the cuts to Brazil’s health programme imposed by right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro. Da Silva, who won the presidential election at the end of October despite extensive right-wing attempts to rig […]
Maybe it has to do with the show's deal with Disney, but the BBC's Doctor Who is out to prove to "someone" it can do superhero things, too.
Also, a new wealth tax, clean energy could soon outcompete gas plants, abortion pills are becoming more accessible, a major media company is banning fossil fuel ads, and more.
Someone’s shooting at Democratic politicians’ homes, offices It’s called the Dark Corner. In the remote foothills of extreme northeast Greenville County, South Carolina, it was a region known for hidden moonshine stills even one hundred years after the Civil War. Occasionally the Dark Corner made the news at 11. Someone would pump a 12-gauge round through a local’s front door and drive off. No one ever seemed to get hurt. Family feuds were still a thing in the Dark Corner. This is different. And similar. Let’s pray it gets no worse (Associated Press): Bullets flew through one home’s front door and garage. At another home, three bullets went into the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl in a series of shootings that had at least one thing in common: They all targeted the homes or offices of elected Democratic officials in New Mexico. Nobody was injured in the shootings that are being investigated by local and federal authorities. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said they’re working to determine if the attacks that started in early December and were scattered around the state’s largest city are connected.
Meritocracy has become an empty idea in America. That's a problem.