Political science, economics, data science, and environmentalism
So I have been running several laptops for the last year or so. A friend gave me some surface books which he didn’t need, I have a Mac mini with an M1 processor, and a system76 Oryx Pro which has served me well for the last 5 years, but it isn’t as portable as it …
Continue reading “Why I chose a MacBook for my next computer”
There is a lot of talk in libertarian circles about how everything would be better if we would privatize everything. Privatize the roads, privatize the railroads, privatize our electric grids, the government is inherently inefficient, and everything will be better. Then they will inevitably point to Hong Kong (which Milton Friedman personally pointed to as …
Fascism takes the form of whichever ideology at the time best enables their ideas. During the lead-up to Nazi Germany, they called themselves social. They made an alliance with the Soviet Union (because it was convenient) and it furthered their goal. They surrounded their rhetoric with vaguely socialist wording, while all the time their main …
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? …
Continue reading “The Standard Deduction is bad for Democrats”
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 …