The last months have been unlike anything we’ve ever seen, with extreme measures taken around the world to slow the spread of COVID-19. The policy of lockdowns and mass quarantines were widely adopted — but each passing day begs the question, did we take the right approach? COVID-19 is no doubt a real disease that should be taken seriously. But, Read More ›
In this intriguingly contrarian rework of the Thomas Friedman “hot and flat” motif, Gregg Easterbrook asserts that venture capitalists are no better than lottery players when it comes to choosing new technology companies. He reports that leading stock analysts outperform broad market-index funds only one-third of the time. He adds that the preeminent financial pundits break into two groups — Read More ›
Richard Feynman once remarked that unless one is able to make one’s ideas understandable to college freshmen, one doesn’t really understand them. On the other hand, when asked by a reporter to explain why he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Feynman remarked, “Listen buddy, if I could explain it in fifty words or less, it wouldn’t be worth a Nobel Read More ›
As any statistician knows, Vice President Al Gore’s plan to recount votes in Democratic-majority counties has been intrinsically unfair. During the last three weeks, Gore’s lawyers mounted a full-court press to force hand recounts in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Most recently, they sought a court order to hand count some 10,000 ballots in Miami-Dade County that did not Read More ›
During the past year you have heard all about it: Americans no longer are joining community groups to the extent they did in the good old days. In the widely quoted phrase of Harvard’s Robert Putnam, people are “bowling alone” instead of joining bowling leagues, and dropping out of other social organizations as well. It shows that we’re a society Read More ›
Where was Nicholas Eberstadt when I needed him? In 1984, the Urban Institute produced a study that purported to show how poverty had grown during the Reagan years. The trouble was, the Urban Institute used an improper base for its analysis: 1980 to 1984. It sounded plausible enough; at least no one in the press challenged it. Ronald Reagan was Read More ›