I turned 72 in February. I want to make a few comments on the history of the American Right, while I still have my wits about me. I have spent my life on the fringes of academia. I earned a Ph.D., but I never went into full-time teaching. Well, not quite never. In the fall […] READ MORE
When You Hear “Bitcoins,” Think “Mt. Gox.”
Mt. Gox is gone. Bankrupt. It took $473 million with it. About a million investors listened to the hype about the “untraceable money of the future,” and they turned real money over to some 25-year-old French kid — a programmer who lived in Japan. They gave him real money. He gave them a dream. Goodbye […] READ MORE
Government Spies Hack Yahoo Webcams, Store Images
Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk […] READ MORE
|
|
|
|
After tens of thousands of defiant gun owners in Connecticut chose not to register their semi-automatic rifles to comply with a hastily-passed gun control law, the state is now taking some action. Officials are reportedly notifying gun owners who submitted late applications that they have one last chance to get rid of their “illegal” weapons. […] READ MORE
Jump In Jobless Claims Surprises Forecasters
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the underlying trend suggested no shift in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 2,000 fewer […] READ MORE
Facebook Post Leads To High School Coach Resigning
An Ohio high school basketball coach resigned this week after a Facebook post by his now ex-girlfriend accused him of cheating and alleged that he was “borderline pedophile.” Jason Stonebraker, a high school basketball coach in Ohio, resigned this week after the school launched an investigation into alleged inappropriate contact with a student. On Monday, […] READ MORE
Bitcoins, Stage 2: “Bring in the Feds!”
When you think “Mt. Gox,” think “Enron.” When something this devastating happens to the biggest exchange in an experiment designed by anonymous Japanese programmers, the industry is not going to recover rapidly. Other firms in this industry now have a real marketing problem. The disappearance of the Mt. Gox Bitcoins exchange is a major setback […] READ MORE
Bitcoins Debacle: Mt. Gox Disappears. So Does Digital “Money.”
I told you so. There. I’ve said it. The biggest Bitcoins exchange has gone bye-bye. It took with it the money that the investors thought was safe. Reuters reports: “Mt. Gox had $174 million in liabilities against $32.75 million in assets. It was not possible to verify the document or the exchange’s financial situation.” I […] READ MORE
Conservatives, Rejoice! Robert Welch’s Predictions Were Dead Wrong in 1974
Are things getting better? Are things getting worse? This question still divides the American Right. On the moral front, things are getting worse. On the economic front, things are getting better. It is true that median family income, adjusted for price inflation, slowed dramatically, beginning around 1974. But in the crucial areas of information and […] READ MORE
Minimum Wage Laws: Litmus Test for Economists
I have learned over the last half-century that there are two litmus tests of an economist’s commitment to the idea of voluntary exchange as a means of increasing net productivity and net income. One of them is the doctrine of free trade. The other is the doctrine of minimum-wage legislation as a source of increased […] READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment