From Ross Douthat The Impotent Executive But Trump is still extraordinarily weak. Some of that weakness is invisible because we simply take it for granted; it’s just part of the scenery, for instance, that this White House has no legislative agenda, no chance of advancing any policy priority on the hill, barely two years into… Continue reading The Political Circus

The elite really are different from the rest of us: (source: THE BELL CURVE AND COGNITIVE ELITES) The typical elite-school grad has an IQ of around 138. That is around a 1-100 rarity. By comparison, the cutoff for Mensa is 132, which is approx. 1-50 rarity. As Dr. Peterson says, society is stratified by ‘hierarchies… Continue reading The elite really are different from the rest of us

From Vox Day The end of empire: There’s also the fact that whites are getting wise to what’s happening and public trust is plummeting. A volunteer army not only relies on patriotism, but it relies on civic duty. It is why we still call military service a duty. Some still call politics “public service” even… Continue reading Blacks and the Media Narrative

An article from Japan Times, America is one of the few cultures with insults for smart people, by Ted Rall, went hugely viral. In the context of this blog, the viralness can be attributed to the shared narrative that society neglects and or is indifferent to smart people, which all smart people irrespective of their… Continue reading Is the U.S. Hostile to Smart People?

Tyler Cowen ponders why inflation isn’t higher. Since the liquidity trap is gone, and inflation remains well under control, the liquidity trap does not seem to be the reason why inflation did not explode post-2008, following the Fed’s stabilization measures. In spite of substantial deficit spending under Trump, Bush, and Obama, the Trump tax cuts,… Continue reading Why isn’t inflation higher?

Scott’s article BULLS**T JOBS (PART 1 OF ∞) went massively viral. It seems like every week I see a new article about the ‘bullshit jobs’ phenomenon, and these articles all seem to go viral. Everyone wants to know why so many man hours are wasted doing seemingly pointless work. A distinction should be made between… Continue reading Bullshit Jobs, Part 2

Why Prosperity Has Increased but Happiness Has Not In a poor country with low inequality, rising national income should make people happier, and of course reducing poverty is a good in and of itself. But in a wealthy, unequal country like today’s America, gains in national income can decouple from well-being. Part of the problem… Continue reading Why we’re not happy

This Unz Review article went viral a few months ago Thorfinnsson’s Take on Tesla A typical akarlin post gets 12-30 comments, but this one got over 200, indicating considerable interest in Tesla. Tesla is one of the most closely scrutinized companies in existence. It’s not so much about Tesla as a company, but also its… Continue reading Short-sellers wrong about Tesla

Milo’s take on John McCain IS IT OKAY TO BE GLAD WHEN A VINDICTIVE OLD BASTARD DIES? Not that Trump much cared about the social slight, obviously. I expect he was relieved. And I think the President was right to resist the release of what I’m sure was a long, gushing tribute to McCain that… Continue reading Milo on McCain

With the post-2009 bull market and economic expansion officially [1] the longest ever, everyone wants to know how long it will continue. Yet again I was right, in 2014–when the blog was launched–correctly predicting a continuation of the bull market and expansion, then only in its 5th year, and now its 9th. It’s amazing yet… Continue reading When is the next recession? Not for a long time