a Better Bubbleโ„ข

Kevin Drum ๐Ÿ•ธ

Yes, of course big deficits are due to tax cuts

3 days 8 hours ago
The Center for American Progress says that our recent big deficits are due to Republican tax cuts. Their explanation is a little complicated, but it's all pretty obvious if you just look at federal spending: In 2019—the last year before the pandemic—the federal government spent almost exactly as much as it did in 1980. Spending ...continue reading "Yes, of course big deficits are due to tax cuts"
Kevin Drum

China almost has the key to great social media apps

3 days 9 hours ago
The Wall Street Journal reports that internal competition is brutal at Chinese social media companies: Former ByteDance engineers say ByteDance is one of the most aggressive in executing a strategy known within the industry as “horse racing,” where multiple teams are assigned to build the same product or feature with slight variations. Once it becomes ...continue reading "China almost has the key to great social media apps"
Kevin Drum

BREAKING: Unbelievably trivial story somehow becomes national news

6 days 7 hours ago
From the Washington Post: Florida parents upset by Michelangelo’s ‘David’ force out principal This story is all over the place. Why? A tiny charter school in Tallahassee fired its principal over some dumb thing. How does this become widespread national news? For what it's worth, the Post's headline is typical even though the chair of ...continue reading "BREAKING: Unbelievably trivial story somehow becomes national news"
Kevin Drum

Total factor productivity dropped 1.2% last year

6 days 8 hours ago
Total factor productivity is productivity growth after you've accounted for labor and capital. Roughly speaking, it's the share of productivity growth due to technological improvements: TFP took a big jump in 2021 but then dropped in 2022. It is now back to its (sort of lousy) recent trendline.
Kevin Drum

Raw data: Bank borrowing from the Federal Reserve

6 days 8 hours ago
Here's how much banks have borrowed from the Fed this month: During the Great Recession, this number peaked at around $400 billion in October 2008. That's the highest it's been over the past 40 years. We're nowhere near that, but March 2023 is still in a strong second place.
Kevin Drum

Contrary to popular opinion, my brain is just fine

6 days 22 hours ago
Here are the results of my brain MRI: FINDINGS: Study is limited due to motion artifact. Small punctate T2 high signal changes 5 mm in the deep white matter region right frontal lobe, nonspecific, likely of small vessel ischemic changes. There is no evidence for intraparenchymal hemorrhage, midline shift or mass effect. No evidence for ...continue reading "Contrary to popular opinion, my brain is just fine"
Kevin Drum

How satisfied are trans people after their transition?

1 week ago
How satisfied are trans people with their transition? Here's part of an answer from a large-scale Washington Post poll of trans people: Unfortunately, the poll doesn't dig down on this question. Of the trans people who are less satisfied, is this because they think they made a bad choice or because they didn't realize how ...continue reading "How satisfied are trans people after their transition?"
Kevin Drum

Lunchtime Photo

1 week ago
This is sunset over the Sheephole Mountains, very near to the spot in the desert where I do my astrophotography. It's a Bortle 2 area, which means it's very nearly the darkest possible area for stargazing. That compares to Bortle 8-9 in my backyard. Bortle 1 is the darkest sky possible. Death Valley is Bortle ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"
Kevin Drum