Saturday, May 27, 2023
Just Mint The Damn Coin
No reason why not.
About a dozen years ago, a pseudonymous commenter on a financial website, writing under the name Beowulf, presented an unusual solution for a debt-ceiling standoff: If the federal government was at risk of default, and Congress couldn’t agree to either cut spending or raise the borrowing limit cleanly, couldn’t it simply mint a trillion-dollar coin?
Beowulf had come across a 1997 law that, in response to requests from coin collectors, gave the Treasury the power to mint platinum coins of any denomination. (Collectors had complained that even coins available at the time with the smallest face values were still too expensive to afford.) The law started as a way to make collectible coins cheaper, but unlike every other law regulating new coins, this one did not establish a specific face value or limit the number of coins produced.
Friday, May 26, 2023
Never Change, Jonah
One horror of the Trump era was all the Bush-era ghouls refashioning themselves as Serious Conservatives.
So I Guess It Happened Then
Remember this was the case where the Washington Post's FACT CHECKER said: FACT CHECK! NUH UH DON'T BELIEVE IT.UPDATE: The board did not revoke Bernard's medical license but did fine her $3k and formally reprimanded her for discussing the case with a local reporter. Bernard said she did so (rather than using a hypothetical) to help people the true impact abortion bans were having. https://t.co/y6PcYQMh11
— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) May 26, 2023
Don't See How Elmo Wriggles Out Of This One
Actually Musk has a better wriggling record than Donnie, so I imagine he will.
A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of data to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing thousands of customer complaints that raise serious concerns about the safety of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.
The complaints, which were reported across the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. During this period, Handelsblatt says Tesla customers reported over 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems, including 139 reports of “unintentional emergency braking” and 383 reports of “phantom stops” from false collision warnings.
Dismissing Anything From The Left
Crazy lefties suggested the inflation was transitory due to "turning the economy back on again" bottlenecks and then that firms were using their market power to maintain higher prices ("greedflation"). Maybe not the full story, but certainly part of it, and if so then Fed interventions were likely to make things worse (reduce potential output) by having greater and quicker supply-side (lower investment) impacts than demand-side and therefore fail to lower inflation.
It might have been wrong, but no, that wasn't enough. Conspiracy theory! Loony lefties!
Fast forward and greedflation is not only real, but Good, Akshually! The point of this linked piece is, basically, sure interest rate hikes are hurting wages, but corporate profits are going up so we've avoided a recession! Or, more to the point:: the interest rate hikes transferred money from workers to profits. Insane lefty stuff, except for the "it's good" part.
This is all basic Econ 101, as is all economic policy discussion. It isn't what you find in your advanced Marxism class at UMass Amherst, or whatever they imagine.
Centrist dipshists really don't sound any different than Larry Kudlow, most days.
Okay it's week 5 of Econ 101, not week 2, so it's a bit more advanced than most economic policy discussion, but still.
If so, the best policy responses would actually be things like price caps (complicated in practice, but not crazy in theory!).
Widely mocked by the various serious people.
It might have been wrong, but no, that wasn't enough. Conspiracy theory! Loony lefties!
This is all basic Econ 101, as is all economic policy discussion. It isn't what you find in your advanced Marxism class at UMass Amherst, or whatever they imagine.
Centrist dipshists really don't sound any different than Larry Kudlow, most days.
Okay it's week 5 of Econ 101, not week 2, so it's a bit more advanced than most economic policy discussion, but still.
What's Happening In Minnesota
Fair for that fucking paper to cover this (booz Walz), but there's no mention anywhere of all the things that *did* pass.
Hippies fail is a priority headline, hippies succeed is not.
Hippies fail is a priority headline, hippies succeed is not.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
We'll see!
Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.Not quite "Bill Clinton having a chat on the tarmac with Loretta Lynch" but a bit suspicious nonetheless!
Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.
Nobody Who Went To Yale Law School Could Be Bad
Exception that proves the rule, amirite???
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — the longest sentence handed down to date and the first for a charge of seditious conspiracy.
Nobody Could've Predicted
Trailed off a bit, but CPAC got "E! covering the Oscars" type treatment from our political press for years.
Matt Schlapp, the prominent Trump ally who leads the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), was accused this week of mismanaging money and staff in a scathing resignation letter from the parent organization’s treasurer.
Bob Beauprez, the treasurer of the American Conservative Union and a board member for eight years, said he had “lost confidence” in the organization’s financial statements and could not solicit donations “in good faith.” He blamed Schlapp for excessive staff departures and suggested that violations of the organization’s bylaws could expose the storied institution to lawsuits or even criminal prosecution.
You Can't Just Put Rich Guys In Prison
Jokes aside, I have absolutely no idea what Donnie can or can't wriggle out of. What I am pretty sure of is that if you took a poll of what sex pest Mark Halperin used to call "the Gang of 500" - an imaginary conglomeration of various Washington elites including politicians, lobbyists, journalists, and assorted others - about whether or not Trump should be indicted, I doubt there would be too many "yes" votes.
That has nothing to do with their belief about his guilt or innocence of any specific possible charge, instead simply because elites should be accountability. Sure they'll tell various stories - maybe even believe them - about why indicting an ex-president (especially one with an "R" after his name) would be very very bad indeed "for the country" or some bullshit like that. But it's just "laws are for other people" stuff.
That has nothing to do with their belief about his guilt or innocence of any specific possible charge, instead simply because elites should be accountability. Sure they'll tell various stories - maybe even believe them - about why indicting an ex-president (especially one with an "R" after his name) would be very very bad indeed "for the country" or some bullshit like that. But it's just "laws are for other people" stuff.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)