America is currently spiraling into a recession, and we need to have effective policy as soon as possible to end it. This recession is a classic demand side recession. People are staying home, cutting their spending, which is going to cause both deflation and a reduction in GDP. This is going to inevitably cause layoffs, …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Absentee voting
Across the United States, millions of Americans are going to stand in long lines this year to vote for President, Senators, their Representative, and state and local officials across the country. This has been a tactic used by the Republican party in particular over the last few years to reduce the number of people who …
Updated Presidential Rankings
Ranking of American Presidents I am only ranking Presidents who have served for at least 365 days. For this reason I am excluding William Henry Harrison and James Garfield who died less than a year before their first term is up, and I cannot rank President Biden yet because he hasn’t served a full term …
Elizabeth Warren 2020
Roosevelt and Truman refused to prosecute the corporate CEOs who illegally use labor from the Holocaust. Johnson refused to prosecute Nixon for sabotaging his Vietnam peace talks. Carter covered up everything the Nixon administration did by not prosecuting the crimes he committed. Clinton refused to prosecute the Reagan/Bush administration for the Iran Contra Affair and …
My family’s economic history
I am the first in 4 generations of my family to not become a professional grade school teacher. My grandfather is a veteran. My family fought in Vietnam, World War II, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War. I work for a state college. You will never find someone with a longer family history of …
The Trump Administration’s attempt to invade Iran is pathetic
Say it with me. Iran is Shiite. Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda are both of the Salafi interpretation of Sunni Islam. There are MANY movements among Sunni Islam, of which the Salafi are just one. The attempt by the current administration to try to paint a connection between Iran and Al Qaeda is patently false …
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The lessons of President Clinton
American history has gone through several major cycles where parties have changed. Parties have flipped which regions they dominate, the Overton Window has changed substantially in various directions, and the impact of both the President and Speaker of the House has changed dramatically over time. His Presidency also has a lot of lessons for our …
2020 elections, 1 year out
We are currently in declaration season for the upcoming elections in 2020. Elections are going to decide state legislatures, several governoships, the entire House, and 1/3 of the Senate. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this election. Here are my thoughts: President We have the best slate of candidates for President we could …
How to get Visa-free access to the United States
The United States is one of the least welcoming countries in the world based on our visa policy. Only Canadians, Palauans, Marshall Islanders, and Micronesians can come here without some sort of visa. Everyone else needs to either preregister for $14 or pay $140 for a ten year visa. Most people need to pay the …
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Bad investment advice
I was doing some reading this morning and was thinking about defined benefit vs. defined contribution plans and trying to find some actual numbers from a source which would know what they were talking about to show some real numbers behind which decision people should make. The article I turned to first was from Forbes, …