Recent posts
View all
First World Problems
powered by Surfing Waves I was speaking in the Midwest a few weeks back, and the topic of supply chain disruptions came up. A woman in the audience expressed surprise that despite the media coverage she’d personally experienced so few shortages first hand. Except, she added with an afterthought, for her favorite yogurt. For a time it was difficult to find. “But,” she hastily corrected with an eye roll, “that’s a first world problem.” “First world problems.” It’s an expression that has been around for…
With KaiPod, Parents Decide What Their Children Learn
powered by Surfing Waves Curriculum battles in public schools across the US have reached a fever pitch in recent years, with parents and politicians fighting about what children should and should not be taught. The Cato Institute’s Neal McCluskey keeps a running list of these battles, explaining that “ rather than build bridges, public schooling often forces people into wrenching, zero-sum conflict.” Private education models, along with school choice policies that enable parents to exit an assigned distric…
When A Dollar Isn’t a Dollar
powered by Surfing Waves This article was originally published in the Economic Forces newsletter. One thing that banks do is allow you to take physical currency and deposit it into an account you have with them. You hand them a $100 bill and the bank credits your account $100. They also let you come back whenever you want and get your $100 back. You can wait one week or one year or five minutes. When you show up and ask for your $100, they hand you a $100 bill (or five $20 bills or ten $10 bills, you…
Putin’s Belligerence Is No Excuse to Reinstate the Draft in Europe—and the War in Ukraine Is Proving It
powered by Surfing Waves Since February 24, the dreadful day when Russia’s systemic destruction and depopulation of Ukraine began, a political change has occurred in countries unfortunate enough to be in close proximity to Russia. In Eastern Europe, a surge of fear was propagated. Fear that can hardly be called unfounded. Putin’s motive remains a mystery, as it can range from a plan to create a buffer from NATO in Ukraine to a delusion about rebuilding the Russian Empire, or just some unknown function of twenty…
Massachusetts' Highest Court Upholds Cell Tower Dump Warrant
powered by Surfing Waves This blog post was drafted with help from former EFF Legal Intern Emma Hagemann. Massachusetts’ highest court has upheld the collection of mass cell tower data, despite recognizing that this data not only provides investigators with “highly personal and private” information but also has the potential to reveal “the locations, identities, and associations of tens of thousands of individuals.” The case is Commonwealth v. Perry , and in it the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) add…
Debunking the Economic Fallacies in Hugh Jackman and Robert Reich’s Simpsons Episode
powered by Surfing Waves In Sunday’s season finale of the Simpsons, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich teamed up with Hugh Jackman to do a musical act about economics. The act focused on inequality and the demise of the middle class, and argued that “greedy rich men” are responsible for declining wages and lower standards of living. A few days before, Reich tweeted out a preview of the act. I’m grateful to be able to share this sneak peek of @TheSimpsons season finale, where @RealHughJackman and I team …
Fintech firm financing African dreams
powered by Surfing Waves How do you grow a middle class across the African continent? The answer should be simple: support entrepreneurship that multiplies the available capital in the economy accessible to ordinary working people. That’s what worked in the West, and more recently in the Pacific Rim and even in the People’s Republic of China. Emerging from half a millennium of colonialist exploitation, free African nations are scrambling to grow both individually and collectively. One example is the creati…
Social Plugin