One of the great challenges of the modern age is finding sufficient solitude. By “modern age”, of course, I don’t mean the 1950s, which I guess took hold of that term a while back and didn’t let go. I mean…
Month: January 2015
Labor Force Participation Rates Falling Twice as Fast as Predicted
Contrary to what you might imagine about the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and its record-keeping on the purported unemployment situation, they are fairly aware of the impact of the crashing labor force participation rate on the overall employment picture.…
Fire in a Crowded Theater
This, I predict, will be an unpopular post. Few events in recent memory have brought such universal calls of immediate condemnation as Wednesday’s massacre of cartoonists and staff from the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. As a pacifist, I join…
No, Unemployment Didn’t Just Decline
It went up. Unemployment in the United States actually rose in December 2014 from the previous month, from 11.56% to 11.66%. This is largely the result of a revision to November numbers declaring the unemployment rate during that month to…
Children of the Future
They will grow up. And they will log in. The ages will vary and often be the result of a fair amount of debate. For the more liberal parents, it may be five or six, or eight at the latest.…
Symmetrical Surveillance: Serial, the Panopticon, and Why Murder Rates Really Have Crashed
Two things seem to be really trendy these days, if you don’t count bashing Muslims (I’ll talk about that one and why it’s so wrong in a different post). Serial the podcast (which I discussed at length in November) and…
Follow Me Down to the Rose Parade
A New Year’s Day dialogue: Storey: “Do you ever watch the Rose Parade?” Alex: “What’s the Rose Parade?” Storey: “Only the biggest or second-biggest parade in the country annually.” Alex: “Where is it?” Storey: “Pasadena, California.” Alex: “Maybe it’s just…