Yesterday morning, there was a shooting in New York City by the Empire State Building that left two dead and nine wounded. We quickly learned that one man killed a former co-worker and was then killed by police. Tim Cavanaugh at Reason speculated that some or all of the injured bystanders may have been shot by the cops, and the Associated Press is now suggesting the same thing:
Author: Joshua Hedlund
Fiscalcliffmongering
First, we had the fiscal cliff. Now we have the fiscal clifflet. Expectations about the fiscal cliff mean we’re already sliding down it. And it’s steeper than we thought. I call all of this fiscalcliffmongering: spreading hype that an economic apocalypse is going to happen if Congress doesn’t delay a bunch of tax hikes and spending cuts in January.
California Farms and the Curious Labor Shortage
Earlier this month I talked about the curious increase in job openings going unfilled by businesses despite high unemployment. I learned about another example of the phenomenon this week in California, where fruits are rotting in the fields:
Continue reading California Farms and the Curious Labor Shortage
Todd Akin and Performance-Enhancing Facts
I like Todd Akin. He’s been my Congressman for many years, and while, like most Republicans, he loves defense spending too much to be a genuine “small-government conservative,” he also hasn’t been afraid to buck his party on expansionary projects like No Child Left Behind. But I sure didn’t expect him to turn his Senate race into national news.
Everything You Need to Know About Last Week’s News #6
In reverse order of importance:
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Last Week’s News #6
Failed Predictions of Doom
I’m fascinated by failed predictions of the coming apocalypse. In Christian circles, Edgar C. Whisenant is legendary for his 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, and – serving as its own punchline – the sequel arguing for 1989.
I recently read Larry Burkett’s The Coming Economic Earthquake, an early 90’s warning against the huge increase in debt that was sure to cause another Great Depression by 2000. Burkett didn’t foresee the budget surplus under Clinton or the sharp drop in interest rates that would allow the debt to quadruple past the amount he considered alarming.
I also recently saw 25-year-old predictions from science fiction writers in 1987 about what life would be like in 2012; they expected technological advances, but also war, hunger, crime, disease, and too many people and not enough resources. Most of the pessimism turned out to be too pessimistic.
It’s easy to write off apocalyptic predictions by religious conservatives or science fiction authors. But the elites of society have been just as wrong. Matt Ridley has an article in Wired detailing decades of failed predictions of doom and destruction by scientists, international organizations, politicians, and more.
Obama the Agriculture Speculator
Corn prices are surging to records, and farmers are slaughtering their animals earlier than usual to save on feeding them. Clearly this is a problem that calls for a government solution!
Now the government is already exacerbating corn prices with its un-environmental ethanol mandate, and there were rumors that Obama might actually suspend those requirements. After all, Bush started that one, so Obama could have blamed Bush and reduced the government’s intervention in agriculture in one fell swoop. But that would require admitting the government caused this problem in the first place, and as we all know, the only policies from the Bush administration that Obama likes are all the ones that have to do with government intervention. (See warrantless wiretapping. And indefinite detention. And that light bulb law.)
So Many Job Openings, So Few Hires
Good news! The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the number of job openings in June was the highest since 2008.
Woohoo! There are 500,000 more job openings than a year ago, and a million more than two years ago! This trend is going up and up and up!
But wait a minute. The number of actual net jobs added per month, while fluctuating quite a bit, looks pretty flat over the last couple of years.
If there’s so many more jobs these days, why aren’t more people getting hired? Continue reading So Many Job Openings, So Few Hires
Everything You Need To Know About Last Week’s News #5
In reverse order of importance…
Continue reading Everything You Need To Know About Last Week’s News #5
Reasons For Optimism 20-22
A few advances this week in the awesome technologies that will probably change this decade…
20. A little girl with a rare disease can now use her arms thanks to a 3D printer. This is the most powerful single piece of evidence I have yet seen for my belief that 3D printing will change the world. It clearly demonstrates how someone’s life can be dramatically altered by the ability to cheaply print completely customized physical parts. It’s not clear to me whether the girl will need the exoskeleton for the rest of her life or if the assistance will enable her to developer her muscles to the point where she eventually will not need them.
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