January 30, 31

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Cloudy this morning though the weather people promise some hints of sun later. The temperatures are cold which is about normal for late January going into February. 

I found this David Kaiser piece that is a good account of our highly concentrated economy. I have been struck myself by the strong resemblances between our own "aristocracy" and those of 17th century France. Spoiler alert for those who haven't read much history: it didn't go well for the French aristocrats. Madame la Guillotine spilled a lot of blue blood.

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An interesting piece by Richard Reich which casts some doubt on the old argument that comes up every time someone in government suggests that the wealthy should be paying more: there aren't enough wealthy people to do all that much good. Once upon a time they paid much more and yet that was a booming time for the economy. However, I am a bit cautious because the differences between now and then are glaring. We were a manufacturing powerhouse then, not so much now. We were the only undamaged industrial power coming out of WWII but now we are one of many and some of that many are eating our lunch. Also the wealthy aren't the only group holding large government debt. The Social Security Trust Fund is one of the largest holders of government treasury bonds (a.k.a., debt).

The news this morning reports that George Santos (or what ever his name might rightly be) has assured his House colleagues that he will recuse himself from his assigned committees until his legal (and other troubles) are resolved. Nice but he still draws a six figure salary for doing nothing.

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Welcome to the second month of 2023.

Le Monde put up this article covering a think tank's report that the EU, as a unit  last year, generated more electricity by way of wind and solar power than using either coal or gas. Pundits had thought that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would push European countries back to coal generation but that hasn't necessarily happened. I thought I would look up the numbers for individual countries because I suspected that the countries leading the move to solar and wind would be the richer and northern countries. For the most part that was the pattern though a couple did surprise me. Countries in eastern and southern Europe are poorer and have often had a decade of fiscal crises to contend with. By the way, my Google search confirmed the numbers the think tank put out.

The two stolen Emperor Tamarinds in Dallas have been found and returned. According to the stories I have seen (I'll let you Google the story) someone phoned in a tip which led police to an abandoned house where they were found in a closet. However, a Louisiana zoo has also suffered a theft of monkeys.