As Facebook faces growing criticism for bias and privacy issues, it is moving ahead with a massive new project. The giant tech firm is putting together a consortium to launch a cryptocurrency. Everything about the project should trigger red flags. The possibility of abuse is everywhere. However, Facebook is treating it like … Read more
In the scramble to make sense out of the present election cycle, analysts have come up with all sorts of theories. One popular explanation claims that people are hardening in their positions. On the left and the right, all parties are holding rigidly to their agendas, forcing their will upon the rest … Read more
Everyone acknowledges that this is not an ordinary election cycle. Almost as confusing as the campaign events are the explanations of those trying to explain why so many bizarre things are happening. Everyone has a take on the political carnival. Everything seems to be a confused mess. However, if one observes closely, … Read more
It is no secret that middle-class Americans are angry at the government and the general state of things. The so-called anti-establishment candidates appear to be channeling that rage to their camps. It is a raw undefined rage that is based more on frustrations and emotions than on concrete facts or convictions. People … Read more
Everybody is looking for ways to describe the dire state of the world economy. Some have used Crisis with a capital C, a sinking Titanic or a perfect storm. These are all dramatic expressions to describe a very serious situation. However, the latest metaphor being used is even more dramatic. Leading economists … Read more
Many are attempting to make sense out of the present election cycle and especially the appearance of unconventional political outsiders that are dominating the headlines and in some cases the polls. Everyone seems to agree that the system doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken and no one knows how to fix it. However, … Read more
If the pace of life seems overwhelming, it might well be because we have assumed so many of the jobs once held by others. This is the position of Craig Lambert in his book, Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day (Berkeley, Calif., Counterpoint Press, 2015). The Harvard sociologist … Read more
As we sail on the choppy seas of a questionable economic recovery, we can look back upon a storm of our own making that has wreaked havoc upon our financial system. That storm is the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Enacted five years ago, the mammoth law of all … Read more
The continuing debate over the debt ceiling raises matters of such a magnitude that it is easy to be overwhelmed and confused. Everyone can agree that there is obviously something terribly wrong about a nation that must survive by borrowing against its future. Elementary economics teaches us that we cannot live beyond … Read more