Political science, economics, data science, and environmentalism
The Standard Deduction is bad for Democrats. The Standard Deduction gives Americans a choice… we can either deduct the standard deduction and then stop there, or we can choose to itemize our deductions one by one, but we don’t get the standard deduction if we choose to itemize. So why is this bad for Democrats? …
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We are seeing a very dangerous precedent right now with the court case to undo student loan forgiveness. There are three main parts to this case that are very critical: Laws don’t have to help everyone equally. Medicare for All is basically the only policy in that basket. Bailouts are part of the American fabric. …
Playing with this idea that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon… one would expect a very high correlation between the federal funds rate and the inflation rate. Also for shits and giggles let’s throw in the price of energy in the United States. Here are my correlation coefficients: CPI Energy Fed Funds CPI …
If you try to look at the arguments for Brexit for any length of time with any basic understanding of economics, it doesn’t take long to realize the problems with all of them. With Brexit in full force are starting to see a decrease in wages, an increase in inequality, and a loss of jobs …
When asking the question of which state parties are the most effective, one of the first questions I ask is how effective is the party at keeping control of a state. If this is how we define a political party to be effective, then the most effective parties are the ones who are able to …
King Gyges of Lydia was King of Lydia (which ruled over Western Anatolia) in the 7th century BC. He founded the Ardys dynasty. King Alyattes of Lydia (Gyges’ great-grandson) was most likely the great grandfather of King Cyrus the Great, through his daughter Aryenis. King Cyrus the great was an 8th generation ancestor of King …
A common refrain among Democrats today is that “Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have resigned before Clinton lost, and that would have saved abortion.” Let’s review this claim, by looking at different scenarios. RBG retires early If RBG retired before 2015, then Democrats could have replaced her with another Democrat. She could not have retired after …
We are currently witnessing the largest political crisis in the United Kingdom of the last century. Recap: In 2010 David Cameron became Prime Minister after Nick Clegg decided he would rather form a coalition with the mercantilist/fascist Tories versus the left-of-center Labour. I hope Nick Clegg burns in hell for eternity for what he did. …
I was just thinking about a friend who had her identity stolen, and had no backup beyond her driver’s license which was the one document that had been stolen. If she had a passport, she would not have had her life ruined. It has cost her tens of thousands of dollars. The average American makes …
Many in the economic center and economic right are claiming that the stimulus payments are the cause of the inflation we are seeing now. One such article is in the latest Economist. It is a rather unusual article for the Economist because it doesn’t include any graphs. What if we actually do some basic graphing …