Reverie

It is no longer profitable, with few exceptions, to ask people what they think, for you will be told what they wish, instead.

CBO's "Extended Alternative Fiscal Scenario" predicts that the deficit as a percentage of GDP will rise from 78% last year to 105% in 2028, 148% in 2038, and an astonishing 210% in 2048. America's average over the last half century was just 41%; only during World War II and in its immediate aftermath did the federal debt exceed 70%, peaking at 106% in 1946. With larger deficits and debts, interest rates likely would be higher and GDP growth lower.

For the first time in years, U.S. carbon dioxide output rose last year, a new report says. in 2018, U.S. carbon dioxide output jumped by 3.4,  according to Rhodium Group, a research firm.

There's a connection with Trump: since Trump entered office, the number of manufacturing jobs has jumped by close to half a million. Once-moribund industrial areas around the country  are coming back to life. Minority unemployment rates are at or near record lows. Meanwhile, wages rose 3.2% last year, the fastest in a decade. And with that activity comes energy use. And CO2 emissions.
Everything is Trump's fault.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a new satellite that will search the stars.

Over the next two years, NASA’s TESS will monitor about 200,000 nearby stars for evidence of orbiting exoplanets. TESS is expected to find thousands of new planets, which will give astronomers a better understanding of how worlds like our own form—and how common watery, temperate, life-filled orbs like Earth might be. Compared to its predecessor, Kepler, TESS will search an area of the sky 400 times larger, and for less than half the price: just $337 million.

Sanders' universal health care comes in at $32 trillion in government spending over 10 years. Add to that free college, student loan forgiveness, and a guaranteed jobs program and the tab totals $42.5 trillion.

[Young-back] Choi argues that [Joseph] Schumpeter and [Israel] Kirzner agree on three points, (1) that there exist in the economy unexploited opportunities, (2) that the role of the entrepreneur consists of exploiting them, and (3) that traditional economic theory is flawed in leaving out the existence of unexploited opportunities and thereby overlooking the very force that moves the economy….(from Storrs)

There is a view of capitalism that sees profit as a "tax" on the purchasing citizen. As such it would be 15 to 20 percent. But socialism's tax is 60 to 90 percent.

We should all know this. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is officially the fastest thing ever made by humans, reaching a top speed of 430,000 miles per hour as it makes its 7-year mission in the sun’s outer corona. The probe, which launched in August, will orbit the sun, getting closer than any spacecraft ever has before. Despite encountering temperatures north of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, most of the probe’s four sensitive instrument suites will remain a cool 85 degrees. This is thanks to an eight-foot-wide, 160-pound heat shield made of carbon foam 4.5 inches thick and coated with a layer of superheated carbon. The foam is so light that, here on Earth, 97 percent of the mass was occupied by air—that doesn’t leave much solid matter for the Sun to heat, keeping the craft cool.

We can't just drill our way out of high oil prices.--Obama

The American Psychological Association has, in its words, issued "its first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys." These guidelines "draw on more than 40 years of research showing that traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage."

So guys are inherently pathological; half the species is unwell. Hide the women.

Tony asked if Gresham's Law applied to people? There are different dynamics, I suppose. The driving out of good money by bad is actually inaccurate. Good money comes out of the circulation because it is recognized as more valuable and, consequently, is hoarded. But in the marketplace of ideas and people, bad thinking--and people--provide easier--and less real--solutions. Good ideas do not disappear because they are cherished, they disappear because they are hard. One of the things that annoys me about Trump is that he allows the debate to be so silly. Strangely, Cortez might be accidentally raising the bar regarding public debate because her suggestions are so threatening.

A paper out of Harvard proclaims the benefits of tax cuts to businesses over the last 50 years.  In terms of cumulative effects, the full cut in the tax wedge, τ, from 1968 to 2018 is estimated to have raised economy-wide productivity by 3.7%. Thus, this cumulative effect is substantial. Moreover, in the model, this change corresponds to reduced distortion and, hence, to a gain in efficiency. However, in terms of annual productivity growth, the contribution from this 50-year accumulation of cuts in tax wedges—and the resulting shifts in legal form of organization—would be only around 0.1 percentage points per year.

A lot of factors these people  assume.

This was in the WashPo: "The newly solidified conservative majority on the court will inevitably decide more cases in line with the society’s ideals — which include checking federal power, protecting individual liberty and interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning." The next part of the paragraph said this: "In practice, this could mean fewer regulations of the environment and health care, more businesses allowed to refuse service to customers on religious grounds, and denial of protections claimed by newly vocal classes of minorities, such as transgender people." So, does that mean these modern aspirations are opposed to the nation's ideals?

A New York City Hospitality Alliance survey of 574 restaurants showed that 75 percent of full-service restaurants reported plans to reduce employee hours this year in response to the latest mandated wage increase. Another 47 percent said they would eliminate jobs in 2019. Eighty-seven percent of respondents also said they would increase menu prices this year. These types of cost-cutting moves coincide with a U.S. Labor Department report released last Friday showing full-service restaurants in December raised prices the most since 2011, to cover soaring labor and food costs. Intentions are not connected with results.

The United Nations devotes more resources -- time, money and votes -- to the Palestinian issue than to the claims of all the other oppressed groups combined. Nonetheless, the NYRB can run an article on its front page titled: "Time to Break the Silence on Palestine."