After World War 2 the US (and West in general) supported its former enemies. Rebuilding cities, legal systems, and economies on a massive scale. Germany and Japan were the primary beneficiaries of that financial aid and guidance and today those two countries are large stable entities that improve the West’s standard of living by providing both solid trading partners and political allies. Some argue that those countries now take “our” jobs when in fact the evidence is clear that those…
It is well established that even well intentioned government intervention in industry very often ends up causing more problems than it solves. Today one of the issues facing the United States is a loss of jobs in the steel industry and so President Trump claimed this is a National Security Issue and so used his unilateral power to impose a 25% tariff on imports of steel into the United States. On its face, this seems like a good idea. Simplistically,…
In the last decade the Dutch have reduced prison inmate populations by 50% and those sentences average to about 90 days in jail. Many people expected this drastic reduction of inmates to lead to a notable increase in crime because: Dangerous, proven criminals are being quickly released back onto the street There is virtually no deterrent effect to being jailed in the Netherlands Contrary to this expectation the fact is that Dutch system has also reduced crime by nearly 40%.…
A man died and went to Heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, ‘What are all those clocks?’ St. Peter answered, ‘Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone who has ever been on earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock move.’ ‘Oh’, said the man. ‘Whose clock is that?’ ‘That’s Mother Teresa’s’, replied St. Peter. ‘The hands have never moved,…
Today the United States oldest gun maker Remington Outdoor Company Inc, which owns Remington Arms, filed for Bankruptcy protection. The anti-gun lobby has taken this as a sign that the guns and gun companies are finally starting to decline. Unfortunately, Remington’s collapse is only a sign of bad management and will do nothing to stem the tide of easy to find, cheap guns. Remington expanded production several in the Obama era, especially after Sandy Hook, as Americans feared their misunderstood…
After numerous rounds of, “We don’t know if Kim Jong Un is still alive,” Kim Jong Un himself decided to send Donald Trump a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game. The Donald opened the letter which appeared to contain a single line of coded message, 370HSSV-0773H. The Donald was baffled, so he e-mailed it to the Secretary of State and his aides who had no clue either, (so that’s why Rex…
Now that much of the dust has settled on Cambridge Analytica‘s misuse of Facebook users data the sad story can now be told. It is critical to note upfront that Facebook was not hacked and that the information that was misused was provided voluntarily by Facebook Users. The only breach was a breach of misplaced trust. Timeline of the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica Scandal: January 2015: Cambridge University’s Professor Alexander Krogan created ‘ThisIsYourDigitalLife’ personality survey app on Facebook, under his company…
After limited debate the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a further reduction in “Dodd-Frank” banking regulations introduced in 2010 to avoid another 2008 style bank generated economic collapse. Dodd-Frank‘s primary mechanism for doing this was to require financial institutions that were “too big to fail” to withstand stress tests. The idea being that if your bank was going to need a government bail out in the event of failure, effectively making you and me the banks insurance company, that such banks…
Let me start with the obligatory, I do not particularly like Donald Trump, believe much of what he says or think his campaign was shinny clean. That being said I do like to listen to both facts and common sense, so let’s go: How We Know Trump’s Campaign Did Not Collude With the Russian Government: There are a few key points to consider when thinking about the claims that the Trump Campaign for President of the United States in 2016…
On Monday January 22, 2018, the Trump administration brought in a 30% tax on imported solar panels. This new solar tax will last four years and decrease over time to 15% in its last year. “Over the last 5 years, nearly 30 American solar manufacturers collapsed; today the President is sending a message that American innovation and manufacturing will not be bullied out of existence without a fight… This is a step forward for this high-tech solar manufacturing industry we…
First world governments around the world, including Canada have come down on the side of Net Neutrality (the idea that internet providers can not advance or block one website or stream). The notable exception to this is the United States under President Trump’s appointed FCC leader (and former Verizon executive) Ajit Pai, which has eliminated the Obama era rules protecting an open internet in December 2017. The Republican / Ajit Pai / Trump argument is that the infrastructure is owned by…
Much has been said about the Trump administrations lack of a coherent foreign policy plan. He seems to have changed to tone to an us vs them winner takes all approach without considering even the near term negative consequences of such an approach. Even if that is correct, Trump definitely got something right on US Foreign Policy: US citizens stopped buying in the notional that the US should be the ‘Global Global Good Guy’. Somewhere in the George Bush, Bill…
A brief panel discussion about the legal (and therefore political) implications of data collection in cars.
Bill Clinton appealed to both working class whites AND the educated elites. Working class whites, don’t mind billionaires but they hate ‘bossy professionals’ and they just could not vote for Hillary.
Trump Changes to Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards Will Have Little Effect On Automobile Manufactures. This is because Trump is only planning to eliminate changes AFTER the year 2022 and also because nearly all manufacturers are building cars for the global market which will still have increasingly tough regulations. One example of this is the 2019 Jeep Renegade which is expected to meet the 2025 standard (that Trump is eliminating) because it will be sold in many markets worldwide.