In "Recommended Reading" -- it used to be in America that all we had to fear was fear itself. Now all we have to be anxious about is anxiety itself. Yes, the government now wants to "screen" all adults for anxiety. So if you weren't anxious already, now you be anxious about that. Well, they have to do something post-Covid to keep you on your toes (and obedient).
Covid-2019
Covid-2019
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
In "Recommended Reading," a fascinating new paper from the San Fransisco Fed on the effects of post-pandemic work-from-home on the real estate markets.
Covid-2019
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
President Biden justified forgiveness of student loans as a pandemic emergency measure (yes, the same pandemic he said was over). The White House said it will cost $240 billion. Now the Congressional Budget Office says the cost will be $400 billion. See their non-partisan analysis in "Recommended Reading."
Covid-2019
Monday, September 26, 2022
Pfizer's CEO, whom we presume eats his own cooking, has just tested positive for Covid for the second time in two months. We wish him a speedy recovery and all the best. However we wish people would be more realistic about what his vaccines can and cannot accomplish -- and consider, given that, whether it makes sense to mandate them for people who would prefer not.
Covid-2019
Sunday, September 25, 2022
In "Recommended Reading," a friend points us to an article in The Lancet documenting the creation, evolution and maintenance of the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard. From the beginning, it has been our primary source for daily new cases and fatalities for US states and every nation in the world (we are among the 226 billion "feature layer requests" logged through mid-year. An amazing achievement of data-collection, cleaning and presentation. For all that, it remains only one of many sources we must access every day to produce this report. Surely COVID holds the record for most data generated most often viewed my most people. We wish we could say it made any difference in the world's generally botched response to the pandemic. It almost seems like the more data we had the less wisely we acted.
Covid-2019
Saturday, September 24, 2022
In today's "Recommended Reading," a departure from our usual exclusive focus on Covid. A client and friend suggested we point to Alan Dershowitz's account of why he representing Mike Lindell in his suit against the Justice Department. It's an all-American question of principle over politics, and it's not easy for a liberal like Dershowitz: "What is difficult is to criticize officials of one’s own party when they go too far."
Covid-2019
Friday, September 23, 2022
We're shocked. Shocked! The Labor Department has identified $45.6 billion in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits. That's approaching 10% of the total Covid relief spending overall across all categories. And in other news, we're shocked. Shocked! The World Health Organization says the pandemic isn't over. It's all in "Recommended Reading," of course.
Covid-2019
Thursday, September 22, 2022
A stunning story in "Recommended Reading" today -- with drone footage of China's massive 14,000-bed Covid isolation center. There was a time when we called such things concentration camps.
Covid-2019
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
For your "Recommended Reading" pleasure: while the President walks back his claim that the pandemic is over (it's just "basically not where it was"), a cavalcade of reports around the world about fraud, abuse, waste and investment losses arising in government Covid programs. What a world.
Covid-2019
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Literally the lead story -- the front-page headline -- in today's New York Times is that there isn't enough data available to deal with pandemics. Yes, as soon as the President flippantly improvises that the crisis is over (while retaining all his emergency powers), the Times has to find another related crisis. But seriously, is there really not enough data? Just have a look at the 23-page data document we send you every morning...