Steven Brill has a fantastic article in the New Yorker about the New York City Public Schools. As will not surprise anyone who has ever been in a big city public school, the workforce has all the responsiveness of a late-70s auto assembly plant: The document that dictates how Daysi Garcia can—and cannot—govern P.S. 65 [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Broken Schools
Posted in Education, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy on August 31, 2009 | 12 Comments »
Theology
Posted in Abortion, Health Care on August 29, 2009 | 7 Comments »
My knowledge of theology is rather limited, but I was quite surprised to see this comment from a Catholic bishop: The Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care,” Bishop Nickless of Sioux City wrote, adding, “Any legislation that undermines the vitality of the private sector is suspect. Suspect? Really? Where [...]
Cuckoo
Posted in Italy, Labor Policy, Meltdown on August 28, 2009 | 7 Comments »
From wiscoDude at Pension Bubble, a great article about the behavior that has created California’s public employee pension nightmare: The poster boy for those calling to revamp California public pensions is Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., who for 32 years was city administrator, clerk, finance director, treasurer and redevelopment agency secretary for the city of Vernon — [...]
Searching for the Peak
Posted in Finance, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy, Middle East, Transportation Policy on August 27, 2009 | 3 Comments »
The Times Op-Ed page is not typically given to investment topics – so much easier to let Maureen Dowd mail in fluff pieces about her friends – so I was a bit surprised to see Michael Lynch’s piece on peak oil. He doesn’t pull the typical eight-hundred-words-of-hedging bit either: Like many Malthusian beliefs, peak oil [...]
May The Road Rise Up To Meet You
Posted in Inspirational, Miscellaneous on August 26, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Edward Kennedy, dead at 77. We will see plenty of reverential soft-focus pieces on the news over the next few days, stories about the “Lion of the Senate,” about his advocacy for the downtrodden, about the long-lost era when Democrats were not the party of Wall Street. I’d like to see something a bit more [...]
Strangers in Familiar Lands
Posted in Foreigners, Health Care, Housing Policy, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy, Transportation Policy on August 25, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Bryan Caplan has a thought-provoking post that the reason Americans and Europeans misunderstand each other stems from the difference between experiencing another country as a tourist and as a resident. Where American tourists go wrong: 1. In European countries, historic downtowns of the premiere cities like Paris or Stockholm are by far the best places [...]
Even More About Food
Posted in Food, Health Care, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy on August 24, 2009 | 5 Comments »
I just saw the response of Blake Hurst, a Missouri corn farmer, to Michael Pollan’s long article. Blake’s perspective: I deal in the real world, not superstitions, and unless the consumer absolutely forces my hand, I am about as likely to adopt organic methods as the Wall Street Journal is to publish their next edition [...]
Swiss Principles
Posted in Corruption, Foreigners, Middle East, Transportation Policy on August 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
When it came time for Switzerland to decide between an angry US Internal Revenue Service and its own constitution, the good people in Bern made the only decision they could: they forgot the details of the bank secrecy provision of their constitution and decided to turn over four thousand names of American UBS clients. Tax [...]
Insane Bolt
Posted in Miscellaneous, Olympics on August 22, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I don’t know what this guy is on, but he sure is fun to watch:
Fiftieth State
Posted in Miscellaneous on August 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Hawaii’s accession to the Union. It should be a much better place.
