Kevin Drum 🕸

Ha ha ha: At least 25 companies that merged with special-purpose acquisition companies between 2020 and 2021 have issued so-called going-concern warnings in recent months, according to research firm Audit Analytics. ....The companies with warnings amount to more than 10% of the 232 companies that listed through SPACs in that period....That percentage is roughly double ...continue reading "Time to sack the SPACs?"

Atrios has a question for me: How's your self-driving car, Kevin? Yeah, yeah. I'm not giving up on self-driving cars, but it's true that things haven't been going as swimmingly as I'd thought they might. It turns out to be a hard problem! Then again, my old friend Atrios is stuck in Philadelphia. I'm in ...continue reading "OK, sure, but . . ."

These are the first two cats we came across in France. They were roaming around in a field in the town of La Roche-Guyon and they appeared to be housemates. The black cat was a little shy, but the Siamese was friendly enough, though pretty occupied with hunting-related program activities while I was busy taking ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 27 May 2022"

The latest housing forecast from Fannie Mae takes note of the tremendous jump in average monthly payments for homebuyers in 2022: As a result, their forecast for mortgage originations has declined: That totals $2.7 trillion for 2022, and Fannie now projects that 2023 will see only $2.25 trillion in mortgage originations.

This is (duh) the Cluny La Sorbonne metro station in the Latin Quarter. The photo features a homeless man sleeping on a bench side by side with a student reveling to his earbuds. These are probably the two most common sights in the Latin Quarter.

A couple of months ago I mentioned "Far UV" as a possible solution to COVID-19, so I was interested to see it mentioned prominently in a recent tweet thread from an expert. In general, the thread was about which engineering (not social) measures are worthwhile and which aren't. To summarize super briefly, his advice is: ...continue reading "Civil engineering—both high and low tech—can help fight COVID-19"

This is some  French countryside a few hours before sunset. It's mainly notable because I took it through the window of a bus. The combination of a polarizing filter to remove reflections and Photoshop to restore white balance makes the window disappear completely. Pretty cool clouds, eh?

FiveThirtyEight recently asked a panel of 2,000 Americans what issues worried them the most. The answer was inflation, which is pretty predictable these days. But I'm more interested in how much Republicans and Democrats disagree about things. In the case of inflation, 42% of Democrats thought it was a top worry while 65% of Republicans ...continue reading "What do Americans disagree about the most?"

I was right! Yesterday's photo was indeed a picture of Église Saint-Sauveur du Petit-Andely, a 13th century gothic church in the town of Les Andelys that was (probably) built by Richard the Lion Hearted. It turns out that Les Andelys was Tuesday's stop, so I got to see a lot more of it while trying ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Every year since 2013 the Fed has released a report called "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households." Every year one of the questions is, "Could you cover a $400 emergency expense using cash?" Every year the media breathlessly reports the answer with no context and no comparison to previous years. It is simply a totem showing ...continue reading "Raw data: How many households can afford a $400 emergency?"

Glenn Greenwald has a question: What do you think might explain this? pic.twitter.com/ImHHEXv0xh — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 24, 2022 Glenn is obviously implying that Biden is either stupid or senile. But that's just trash talk. It's worth taking this question seriously. First of all, Biden has always had a reputation as a bit of ...continue reading "Joe Biden finally got tired of the thin fiction of “strategic ambiguity”"

Would you like to hear my latest bitching about something tech related? Of course you would! Here it is. When I'm traveling, I can always receive email but I can never send email—at least, not on a regular email client. I can open up Cox Communication's web app and do it that way, but it's ...continue reading "Technology griping session #486"

One of the things about cruising down a river is that you never know exactly where you are. I shot this picture on Sunday morning at sunrise, and I think it's the Église Saint-Sauveur du Petit-Andely. I may find out for sure on our way back. But for now that's my best guess.

I'm on vacation cruising down the Seine, so my threshold for commenting on dumb stuff is higher than usual. What's more, the proximate cause of my latest annoyance is the Wall Street Journal editorial page—which is sort of like saying I'm annoyed by cancer. I mean, I am annoyed by having cancer, but I'm annoyed ...continue reading "Hillary didn’t do it"

This is probably not worth anyone's time, but it annoyed me so I'm going to make you all suffer through it. In New York, Ross Barkan provides a potted summary of the infant formula shortage and ends up with this: Though off the table for now, more radical solutions should be considered too. Why not ...continue reading "No, let’s not nationalize the infant formula market"

This is Hilbert in his favorite place: Marian's arms. However, my sister says he's adapted extremely well to her arms and her brushing technique. Purr, purr.

I felt a little bad for making my Rome "Where am I" picture so hard, so I decided to make yesterday's a little easier. The fragment in the top right of the picture is indeed the Eiffel Tower. Here's a better picture: This was taken from Pont Mirabeau while I was puttering around at night ...continue reading "Yes, Paris is the correct answer"

I get the irony and everything, but it is possible to have opposed the Iraq War while supporting the Ukraine War, which is a case of Ukrainians fighting back against an unprovoked invasion. Right? For that matter, it's entirely possible to have supported both. Or opposed both. The only combination that would make me shake ...continue reading "Oppose bad wars, not all wars"

We're on vacation again! This is our first big vacation in five years thanks to this and that and, of course, COVID-19. But everything has gone swimmingly so far on this one. The flight was on time; our driver met us punctually at the airport; the weather is good (a little warm for me, but ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

The BLS released its annual report on foreign-born workers today, so let's celebrate by taking a look at the unemployment rate of native vs. foreign-born workers: As you can see, foreign-born workers generally have a slightly lower unemployment rate than native-born workers, but during the pandemic they lost their jobs in large numbers and their ...continue reading "Raw data: The unemployment rate of native vs. foreign-born workers"