Monday, November 26, 2018

Links 2018/11/26

The first gene-edited children may have been born this past month in China. Link. Good!

The average person who purchases at least one lottery ticket spends $600 per year on them. Link. Bad!

Suicide is declining basically everywhere except America. The stats and probable reasons for these trends are here. In Asia, a group that has historically had high rates of suicide is young women, and one of the main reasons seems to be "overbearing in-laws"...

"As the libertarian economist Bryan Caplan has wryly observed, in the United States today we really have no classical liberal party but instead have a choice between two national-socialist parties: one a little more nationalist, the other a little more socialist." Link.

People oppose congestion pricing as a means to reduce traffic... until it is implemented and they see how well it works. Link.

A bipartisan climate bill has been put forward in the House of Representatives that "would apply a $15-per-metric-ton carbon fee to the U.S. oil, gas, and coal industries, but rebate all of the revenue as a dividend to households to shield them from increased fossil fuel costs". Link. Surely it won't pass, but I can dream.

Out of major countries hit by the Great Recession, the countries who have recovered the best, in terms of real GDP per capita, are Germany, followed by the U.S. and Japan. Link.

"residents of the four states that share a border with Mexico are least likely to be worried" about the migrant caravan. Link. This sort of thing holds up in general, where people with the least exposure to immigrants are the most anti-immigrant.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Links 2018/11/19

Straight-ticket voting in Texas ends in 2020. Good. Link.

An antifa protester attacked a fellow protester, who was misidentified as a Nazi for... having an American flag. Link.

"We find robust evidence that exposure to teacher collective bargaining laws worsens the future labor market outcomes of men: in the first 10 years after passage of a duty-to-bargain law, male earnings decline by $2,134 (or 3.93%) per year and hours worked decrease by 0.42 hours per week." Link.

When civil asset forfeitures can be used to raise money... "black and Hispanic arrests for drugs, DUI, and prostitution arrests are all increasing with deficits in states where seizure revenues are legally retained while white arrests are broadly insensitive to deficits." Link.

Americans have more faith in the Supreme Court than in the more partisan branches of government. But is that (both) changing? Link.

One of the themes of the Trump administration is deregulation, but maybe the only difference is the growth of regulations has slowed? Also, the number of regulations grew more under Bush than under Obama. Link.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Links 2018/11/11

"A Vermont gubernatorial candidate has proposed a nationally televised show in which a booing or cheering crowd would decide the fate of state prisoners." Link.

Polls show Americas as much more pro-diversity than Europeans. Link.

A libertarian economist's case for European health care. "American progressives do not favor anything even close to the European system"

In the recent elections, the majority of voters born in Texas chose Beto over Cruz. Link. This is certainly the opposite of how I would have guessed.

Despite a booming economy, we are now heading toward a $1 trillion deficit, due to tax cuts and increased spending by the Republican Congress/President. Link. Same thing happened the last time the GOP had all the power. At what point do Republicans have to stop pretending to care about the deficit?

Trump is talking about ending the 14th amendment with an executive order. Link. Surely all conservatives who claim strict adherence to the constitution, in the context of gun control, are similarly outraged by this? Or perhaps xenophobia trumps the constitution, as it does with opposition to tax increases?

Friday, November 9, 2018

Links 2018/11/09

Dogs process human faces with a dedicated part of their brain, separate from the part that processes the faces of other dogs. Link.

"Over the next decade, humanity will begin its 'transhuman' era: Biology can then be hacked, depending on lifestyle, interests and health needs." Link.

ICE kept a U.S. citizen "imprisoned as a deportable alien for nearly 3 1/2 years. Then it released Watson, who was from New York, in rural Alabama with no money and no explanation... an appeals court ruled that Watson... is not eligible for (compensation)... the statute of limitations actually expired while he was still in ICE custody without a lawyer." And... "There is no right to a court-appointed attorney in immigration court". Link.

Bernie Sander's "Stop BEZOS" bill "seems to be much more about grandstanding and pointing fingers than about actual solutions to help vulnerable American workers". It adds a tax on employers whose workers receive government benefits, which would actually give these employers an incentive to cut the wages of those workers. Link.

A Trump-backed political ad was so dishonest/racist that Fox News decided not to air it. Link.

Trump's aides have struggled to get him to use government approved phones, and he continues to use an insecure phone that the Chinese government taps to listen to some of this conversations. Link. I assume all the people who thought Hillary's email server was a big deal must be very upset about this...

Related: The Hack Gap.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Links 2018/11/03

"You can earn $100 an hour to pet puppies". Link. In Fort Worth!

The GDP of the DFW metroplex is $535 billion, which is about the same as the whole country of Sweden.

"in the last three decades of the 20th century... the children from the poorest families added more to their income than children from the richest families. That reality isn’t consistent with the standard pessimistic story that only the richest Americans have benefited from economic growth... The pessimistic story based on comparing snapshots of the economy at two different points in time misses the underlying dynamism of the American economy". Link.

The GOP is really pushing fear of the "migrant caravan" and its risk of terrorism. But looking at all U.S. terrorist attacks from 1975 onward: "Not a single terrorist in any visa category came from Mexico or Central America". Link. Meanwhile... "two-thirds of the terror attacks in the United States last year were carried out by right-wing extremists". Link. Instead of fearing immigrants you should fear those who fear immigrants.

It's widely known that younger voters are generally to the left of older voters. But I was surprised to learn that, among black voters, it's reversed! Link.

"Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions ... regardless of the ideological appeal of the statements" Link.