Sunday, July 6, 2025

Why Does Essential Work Pay So Little… And Cost So Much?

Ruminations on the nature of work and employment.

2:00PM Water Cooler 7/23/2020

New and improved COVID chart ~ Biden’s promises rich donors no new legislation ~ Biden’s empathy ~ Karen Bass in Biden veepstakes ~ Sanders on task forces ~ Glen Ford on fascism ~ Unemployment, manfacturing ~ Climate migration ~ Breonna Taylor ~ Sid the Kitten ~ Taibbi bingo

Indian Farmers Are Staring at Suicide as Modi Government Looks the Other Way

An account from India on farmer suicide and why many could have been prevented.

Links 7/23/2020

Pathbreaking Public Pension Case Mayberry v. KKR Is Back From the Dead as Kentucky Attorney General Joins Case

The unexpected resurrection of the pathbreaking pension lawsuit Mayberry v. KKR is a welcome but politically extremely puzzling development.

Are American Colleges and Universities the Next Covid Casualties?

Colleges and universities need to be saved, not only from financial ruin, but also, all too often, from themselves.

Marketing Is the Original Behavioral Economics

Showing that behavioral economics is just marketing wine in new bottles.

2:00PM Water Cooler 7/22/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

How Mitch McConnell’s Hostility to the Unemployment Supplement Puts Ordinary Americans’ Welfare at Risk

Republicans intend to shoot themselves and the economy in the head out of ideological rigidity by killing the unemployment supplement.

Links 7/22/2020

Ohio House Speaker Arrested in Alleged $60 Million Racketeering, Bribery, Money Laundering Scheme; A Window Into Politics in America

Ohio’s biggest political corruption case is a doozy, with riveting racketeering charges and lots of dirty tricks.

Boeing 737 Max Ungrounding Pushed Back Again; WSJ Sources Say Early 2021

Moar bad news for the 737 Max.

Random Testing in Indiana Shows COVID-19 is 6 Times Deadlier Than Flu, and 2.8% of the State Has Been Infected

Sobering data from the first random statewide Covid-19 survey.

2:00PM Water Cooler 7/21/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Recovery of Collapsed Airline Traffic in the US Backtracks

Traffiic data confirmed warnings by United and Delta of re-declining ticket sales, seinding airline shares down 3.7% intraday.