a Better Bubbleโ„ข

Kevin Drum ๐Ÿ•ธ

Raw data: ICE immigration arrests in the interior of the country

2 years 8 months ago
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency—aka the hated ICE—announced today that it made about 74,000 administrative arrests last year. That's down from 104,000 arrests in 2020. These are not border detentions, which are handled by the Border Patrol. They are arrests in the interior of the country. This chart shows the number of arrests over ...continue reading "Raw data: ICE immigration arrests in the interior of the country"
Kevin Drum

Raw data: $100,000 adjusted for inflation

2 years 8 months ago
Yesterday's post about college grads pulling in starting salaries of $100,000 has prompted me to produce a chart showing the equivalent of $100,000 over the past century or so. Here it is: If you made $18,000 in 1970, that's the equivalent of making $100,000 today.
Kevin Drum

Maybe we should rein in the anti-Russia stuff a tiny bit

2 years 8 months ago
It's fine to be anti-Russia right now. Hell, it's hard not to be. It's OK to express this by writing about it; boycotting Russian products; supporting sanctions against Russia; hoping Vladimir Putin gets frogmarched to The Hague; and so forth. But in the spirit of avoiding another Freedom Fries folly, there are some things that ...continue reading "Maybe we should rein in the anti-Russia stuff a tiny bit"
Kevin Drum

Lunchtime Photo

2 years 8 months ago
This is a grape juice lupine in a picture taken last year. It's one of the last wildflowers in my queue, but wildflower season is coming up soon so I should have a whole new set of pictures before long.
Kevin Drum

Black and Hispanic residents were way undercounted in the 2020 census

2 years 8 months ago
The Census Bureau released its analysis of the 2020 census today. Here is their estimate of overcounts and undercounts of the four largest demographic groups: White and Asian people were overcounted more than in 2010, while Black and Hispanic people were undercounted more than in 2010. For researchers, this stuff gets weighted and corrected, but ...continue reading "Black and Hispanic residents were way undercounted in the 2020 census"
Kevin Drum

Back in the day, I had to live on less than $100,000

2 years 8 months ago
The Wall Street Journal reports that raw recruits at big tech, finance, and consulting firms are being offered six-figure starting salaries. This is making their less lucky colleagues who graduated a few years ago unhappy: As wage inflation hits campuses during a roaring economic recovery and tight labor market, the next cohort of frosh workers ...continue reading "Back in the day, I had to live on less than $100,000"
Kevin Drum

Mask mandate on planes extended another month

2 years 8 months ago
For at least another month you'll need to mask up on planes, trains, and buses: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing guidance that will ease the nationwide mask mandate on airplanes, buses and other mass transit next month, according to a U.S. official, but in the meantime the existing face covering requirement ...continue reading "Mask mandate on planes extended another month"
Kevin Drum

Crude goes up, crude goes down

2 years 8 months ago
That was quick: Don't get too comfy, though. Tomorrow some reporter will yell a question at MBS about Saudi oil production and he'll just flash them an enigmatic smile and then walk away. Within an hour oil will be selling for a thousand dollars a barrel or something.
Kevin Drum

Lunchtime Photo

2 years 8 months ago
Is this cheating? Am I getting a bonus catblogging day by putting up a picture of a random cat that I took a picture of last week? Probably. This particular cat was up on a roof in a section of town called Orange Park Acres, a little chunk of unincorporated land surrounded by the city ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"
Kevin Drum