In massive new fallout two days after China’s new Hong Kong national security law went into effect, Canada announced Friday it will suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong. This effectively opens the door for Hong Kong democracy activists, who might potentially find themselves “wanted” by pro-Beijing authorities and accused of crimes, to seek out […]

U.S. vehicle sales for major manufacturers like Toyota, General Motors and Fiat were all slaughtered in the second quarter of 2020 as the U.S. deals with the brunt of the economic impact from Covid-19 – while already in the midst of an auto recession that we had written extensively about heading into 2020. Sales for […]

I will be doing a Conversation with him, so what should I ask?  Here is part of his official bio: Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of SIEPR, and the Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. […]

Authored by Ben Wilson via SaraACarter.com, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) on Wednesday called for the passage of a bill to study slave reparations and how distribution would occur. Originally proposed in Jan. 2019, the bill has gained traction since the killing of George Floyd. The Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act would investigate if […]

In May, readers may recall we said social distancing would revive drive-in movie theaters in a post-corona world. And boy, were we right.   A press release via Walmart on Wednesday (July 1) said, “Walmart is transforming 160 of its store parking lots into contact-free drive-in movie theaters where customers can safely gather to watch movies programmed […]

Summary: Arizona hospitalizations at new record high NY reports 9 fatalities Sweden sees deaths, hospitalizations tumble WHO warns against trying to predict when vaccine will be ready ES futures slide as Florida passes NJ with 178k COVID-19 cases Gov Cuomo delivers a holiday weekend warning Britain mandates quarantine for all American visitors US reports another […]

Submitted by Michael Every of Rabobank Brawn on the Fourth of July The US is on holiday today to celebrate Independence Day, which actually falls tomorrow. This 4 July it can do so with some big, brawny numbers to focus on. First of all, jobs. US payrolls yesterday smashed expectations (which consistently have proved not […]

Succinct Summations for the week ending July 3rd, 2020. Positives: 1. Second half begins on positive note, with Markets gaining for the week.2. Nonfarm payrolls rose 4.8M m/o/m, above expectations.3. Unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in June, down from last month.4. Private payrolls rose 4.767M m/o/m, above expectations.5. Pending home sales rose 44.3% m/o/m, above […]

…BMW is planning to move some features of its new cars to a subscription model, something it announced on Wednesday during a briefing for the press on the company’s digital plans. …now the Bavarian carmaker has plans to apply that model to features like heated seats. BMW says that owners can “benefit in advance from […]

Extreme temperatures, mostly in the mid/the high 90s, are expected for the first half of July for much of the U.S., reported The Weather Channel.  These hotter-than-usual temperatures have already begun this week and will bake a significant part of the country this holiday weekend, with elevated temperatures forecasted through the midpoint of the month.  Current weather models show a […]

Authored by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com, With stock-markets barely ruffled, few are thinking beyond the very short-term and they are mostly guessing anyway. Other than possibly the very short-term as we emerge from lockdowns, the economic situation is actually dire, and any hope of a V-shaped recovery is wishful thinking or just brokers’ propaganda. But […]

With the leftist cancel mob now looking to erase Mount Rushmore, President Trump is heading to the South Dakota landmark to kick off his 4th of July weekend. The president will enjoy a fireworks display with some 7,500 people – who won’t be required to wear masks or socially distance. The monument, featuring the faces […]

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org, The Seattle Commune is no more. Declared three weeks ago by radical leftists as CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, rechristened CHOP, the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest, the six-block enclave inside Seattle ceased to exist July 1. The cops shut it down. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first […]

by Calculated Risk on 7/03/2020 08:50:00 AM

Yves here. We are on a holiday schedule through Monday. I nevertheless am busy with eldercare matters (interviewing new agencies, gah) which is why no original posts today. Hope your holiday is fun or at least restful. A ‘Viral’ New Bird Song in Canada Is Causing Sparrows to Change Their Tune Gizmodo (David L) Elk […]

So, I am getting a little bored with the Orange monster. We haven’t really had snow in a while, and there is only so much beach driving one can do. (If I lived in Arizona, I could spend some insane weekends rock crawling). I also love the idea of replacing a depreciating asset with a similar, […]

Yves here. You could see the plan to let drug companies feed at the coronavirus trough a mile away with the hyping and now US stockpiling of remdesivir. More is sure to come. BTW, Common Dreams has a mini-fundraiser on. If you are feeling a bit flush, please consider donating. By Jake Johnson, staff writer, […]

Yves here. You have to read a fair bit into the post to encounter a bombshell: an analysis that finds that charter school economics have a lot in common with Enron By Jeff Bryant, a writing fellow and chief correspondent for Our Schools, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is a communications consultant, […]

One of my favorite countries, this is from the newspaper: DESPERATE to get his taxi badge, a man bought a $500 used typewriter and donated it to the Licensing Office… The seller, who asked not to be named, wrote: “So funny story. I had a typewriter for sale on Facebook marketplace for some time. I […]

Why not internalize the relevant externalities by bringing the two together?: We estimate the benefit of life-extending medical treatments to life insurance companies. Our main insight is that life insurance companies have a direct benefit from such treatments because they lower the insurer’s liabilities by pushing the death benefit further into the future and raising […]

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.” – Thomas Paine “When the government violates the people’s rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of […]

Monkeys in the Thai city of Lopburi have become particularly aggressive since coronavirus lockdowns significantly cut into the supply of treat-throwing tourists which had been feeding the city’s wild macaques. The monkeys, numbering in the thousands, have set up shop in an abandoned local cinema – brawling with each other when they aren’t aggressively attacking […]

Authored by Alastair Crooke via The Strategic Culture Foundation, It was always a paradox: John Stuart Mill, in his seminal (1859), On Liberty, never doubted that a universal civilisation, grounded in liberal values, was the eventual destination of all of humankind. He looked forward to an ‘Exact Science of Human Nature’, which would formulate laws of […]

Readers may recall, as early as March, city dwellers in California fled to suburbs and remote areas to isolate from the virus pandemic. The proliferation of remote work arrangements has led this shift to become more permanent.  At first, the exodus out of the city was due to virus-related lockdowns, then social unrest, and now it appears a steady […]