Category: Politics, Religion & Money

American Idiots Assemble!

I didn’t watch Green Day’s performance on New Year’s Eve, but kudos to Billie Joe and the band for knocking the MAGA crowd.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/green-day-maga-agenda-lyric-american-idiot-1234938852/

I’ve given up trying to understand people who want to see Trump back in the White House. They can’t see that it’s a case of, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” They’re idiots, and I say that admitting Trump probably would have been re-elected in 2020 if not for his incompetence in managing the pandemic. Incredibly, based on recent polls he stands a very good chance of being elected again.

My purity test for Trump supporters:

    1. What is your level of education?
    2. Did you watch The Apprentice?

The mess we’re in goes back to Reagan, who was “Goldwater Lite,” saying government is the problem. What’s astounding to me is that, in the 60’s, both Reagan on the Right and the Hippies on the Left had the same message at the same time. They were both against government intrusion in the lives of Americans, but with very different ideas of what that meant.

There’s No Stopping Progress

Nobel Prize economist Robert Solow has died. Solow was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Obama. It’s an honor that was subsequently tarnished by Trump giving one to Rush Limbaugh.

As [Solow’s] work shows, technological advances, broadly defined, are responsible for the bulk of modern economic growth

https://news.mit.edu/2023/institute-professor-emeritus-robert-solow-dies-1222

Solow’s obituary in The New York Times has this amusing quote about John Kenneth Galbraith.

Mr. Galbraith “mingles with Beautiful People; for all I know, he may actually be a Beautiful Person himself.” But the book, he said, “is for the dinner table, not for the desk.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/robert-solow-dead.html

I think Solow’s “beautiful person” crack may have revealed a bit of the old M.I.T. vs. Harvard rivalry. Meeting the very tall Galbraith was a pivotal event for me in deciding to make Economics my college major.

Coincidental with Solow’s passing, last night’s PBS Newshour has this segment on AI’s potential effects on employment. It was mostly recorded at Boston’s Museum of Science (which is actually in Cambridge), where one of my sisters works developing educational materials.

For a deeper dive into the work of Robert Solow, there is this interview from just six months ago. It was conducted by his former student, economist Steven Levitt.

Which Debit to Credit?

Hmm… if I were irresponsible I would think of my new $700 laptop PC as being free with this year’s Bank of America cash rewards money.

Congratulations! Your rewards are on the way.
Amount: $713.60

I’ll do the responsible thing and think of the money as going towards the $777 heating oil bill.

My cash rewards money is courtesy of everybody else’s bank fees.

The Dirty Little Secret of Credit Card Rewards Programs

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/opinion/credit-card-rewards-points-poor-interchange-fees.html

I Admit Taking Graft!

I went to the periodontist today to get a titanium post, but all I got was a lousy bone graft. Based on what he saw a month ago, he was hoping the graft wouldn’t be necessary, but once he opened up the gum, no such luck. $2350 for the graft, and assuming all looks well for the titanium post in three months, that will be another $3000. Hooray for dental surgery!