Economics

Using Diversity for Personal Gain 0
- Economics
- June 1, 2021
Identity Capitalists: The Powerful Insiders Who Exploit Diversity to Maintain Inequality, by Nancy Leong (Stanford University Press; 240 pp., $28.00). Nancy Leong recounts her chagrin at a friend’s wedding to start her jaundiced polemic, Identity Capitalists. The tipsy bride, gushing with thanks for Leong’s attendance, hugged her before joking indelicately, “I mean if you hadn’t been
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A Response to Biden’s Stimulus Letter 0
- Economics
- May 18, 2021
At my elbow is a letter from President Biden that came in the mail this past weekend. It’s torn in half, dotted with coffee grounds, and slightly soggy, because I just now retrieved it from my kitchen wastebasket. I rescued this letter from the banana peels, other junk mail, and a chicken carcass to read
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Is COVID-19 Relief Encouraging People Not to Work? Dems Say, ‘No Evidence.’0
- Economics
- May 13, 2021
“Experts” predicted 1 million jobs would be created in April. The actual number fell far short, at 266,000. Republicans warned that overly generous COVID-19 relief benefits create a disincentive to work. The day before this disappointing jobs report, Bloomberg wrote: In earnings calls and business surveys, executives often blame stimulus checks and generous unemployment benefits
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Down the Tubes: The Tax Man Cometh 0
- Economics
- May 12, 2021
Last week I filed my federal and state taxes. The tax preparation service I use here, mostly for backup purposes in case of an audit, informed me by phone that the forms were ready for my signature and that I would owe the federal government just over $1,000. Expecting to pay much more than that,
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The Stimulus Reckoning Ahead 0
- Economics
- March 5, 2021
I am an ignorant man and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Ask me about history, literature, or current events, and you’ll find me more knowledgeable than some. Ask me about astronomy, auto repair, or computer maintenance, and I’ll just shrug. Ask me to name one or more gender-friendly pronouns or explain the definition of
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The Case Against Reparations: Part 2 0
- Economics
- March 4, 2021
With reparations, there is the issue of who pays. Do African countries owe reparations to Black Americans? After all, Harvard’s director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Henry Louis Gates, wrote that 90 percent of those enslaved and shipped to the New World were sold by Africans to European slavers. All
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