Below is a map of farm subsidy payments. These are the addresses where farm “welfare” checks were sent and the bigger circles show addresses that got sent up to ¼ million dollars in 2007 alone. This map comes from an…
Yearly Archives: 2019
How climate skeptics are distributed across America
The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies has data about public perceptions on the facts of global warming. As of 2018, almost twice as many Americans believe global warming is caused by humans as those who disagree (57% to…
Posted in Environment
Is it counterproductive to prepare Bluffton University students for a mass shooter on campus?
Bluffton University is located in a ridiculously low-crime town compared to the average American town. My wife lost her wallet twice and both times it was returned by a stranger with all the cash. A lot of Bluffton residents like…
Posted in Violence & Peace
1/3 of Bloomberg articles are written by artificial intelligence!
Artificial intelligence and automation is taking over more and more jobs. Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo recently produced research confirming that: the recent stagnation of labor demand is explained by an acceleration of automation, particularly in manufacturing, and a deceleration…
Posted in Globalization & International, Inequality
Go to college to get an MRS degree.
As a kid I heard the joke that Mennonite women in my mother’s generation went to college to get an MRS degree and indeed, my own mother dropped out of college soon after she got married. Of course, my dad…
Posted in Labor
The six most likely ways the Trump era could come to an end.
There is very little chance that Trump will be reelected by American voters given his behavior so far and his long-run track record of consistently dismal polling numbers. The big question now is how the Trump presidency ends and who…
Posted in Pence2018
Gravity equation of trade
Suppose you have a big import-export business in Puerto Rica located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. What countries would you want to trade with most? The most convenient locations would be the closest nations, but the closest…
Posted in Globalization & International
Medianism 