The Daily Chart
May 3, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Joe Biden is further under water than any modern president at this point in a first term. Here’s the table: It turns out that Biden is relatively stronger than many of his peer leaders: Gee—I wonder why so many leaders are so unpopular right now? (I wonder why the UK’s Rishi Sunak isn’t on this list, since he is heading for an electoral wipeout in just a few months.) Maybe
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May 2, 2024 — Steven Hayward
My pal David Bernstein of Scalia Law School at George Mason University notes the following on Twitter: One thing that hasn’t received enough attention is that major unviersities see themselves today not as American, but as global, institutions. American institutions are strongly opposed to antisemitism and support Israel’s existence. Globally, institutions ranging from the UN to the NGO establishment at best give lip service to antisemitism, and range from tolerant
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May 1, 2024 — Steven Hayward
From our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a note about how the main gauge of consumer confidence continues to slip: “Confidence retreated further in April, reaching its lowest level since July 2022 as consumers became less positive about the current labor market situation, and more concerned about future business conditions, job availability, and income,” said Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist at The Conference Board.
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April 30, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Every sensible person knows that wind power blows (and occasionally blows chunks), but today the Energy Information Administration (EIA) takes note. We’re adding massive wind power capacity under Joe Biden’s blowout “Inflation Reduction Act,” yet last year wind power output somehow went down: EIA’s write-up offers some fine comedy and obfuscation: U.S. electricity generation from wind turbines decreased for the first time since the mid-1990s in 2023 despite the addition
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April 29, 2024 — Steven Hayward
John reported a few weeks back about how the “beepocalypse” (“Colony Collapse Disorder,” as it was called by the disordered minds of environmentalists) can now be added to the pile of discredited environmental catastrophies, but haven’t environmentalists noted that the America Llama population is collapsing? Where are the protests? The “Save the Llamas!” t-shirts? P.S. If the chicken population is up, how come eggs and chicken sandwiches are so much
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April 26, 2024 — Steven Hayward
This survey of the most regretted college majors will come as no surprise to most of our readers, and I’m tempted to make the suggestion that student loan forgiveness should be granted in inverse proportion to this ranking. That is, if you majored in journalism, you’d be eligible for no more than 13 percent of your loan being forgiven. This would provide a strong incentive not to major in sociology,
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April 25, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Right now we are hearing that crime—especially homicide—is falling (just like inflation—heh), suggesting that the runaway crime of recent years was somehow an epiphenomena of Covid. Here’s the chart getting wide circulation: These data are likely correct, but there is reason to doubt that crime overall is falling, for the simple reason that lots of people have lost confidence in law enforcement and prosecution and no longer report many crimes
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April 24, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As we watch our most elite universities circle the drain by capitulating to a mob indistinguishable from the German professoriate that cheered on the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s, I offer our quote for the day from our friend Inez Feltscher Stepman: “Sorry I have no patience for people continually surprised by what’s going on in Columbia and across university campuses like what did you think would happen
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April 23, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As you may know, the supposed slow-growth of wages since the early 1970s has long been a cause-celebre among the left’s equity crowd. It is usually attributed to lower income tax rates, or the demonic powers of “neoliberalism.” One factor that is seldom considered, at least by the mainstream media and the celebrated egalitarian academics like Thomas Piketty, is the role the sharp rise of economy-wide government regulation that began
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April 22, 2024 — Steven Hayward
One of the most interesting aspects of the current political scene is the polling evidence showing Donald Trump gaining strength among minority voters, which is causing panic among Democrats. Why is this happening? Explanations run the full spectrum, from inflation to wokery, but here’s some curious evidence (from an Economist/YouGov survey) that it may be as simple as having children: Chaser—while we’re looking at Trump-Biden surveys, this one is fun
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April 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It’s not exactly news that a large portion of Democrats are anti-Israel, but it now appears to be a majority. The latest Gallup survey shows Israel with net negative sympathy among Democrats for the first time. This marks the end of bipartisan support for Israel in American politics. Will this change historic voting patterns? As Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.
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April 18, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Joe Biden is back doing what Democrats always do—engage in class warfare, demanding that the rich “pay their fair share.” On the very rare occasions a reporters asks a Democrat to offer a precise definition of what “fair share” is, Democrats change the subject, because what “fair share” always means is “more.” (But don’t ever accuse liberals of being greedy for other people’s money, because they think it belongs to
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April 17, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Given the news about NPR (and even the New York Times, currently enduring its own internal Maoist struggle sessions, which I’ll discuss separately), this chart hardly needs any explanation. Though I’ll add that if the media keeps going in its current mode, I’m sure they can drive public trust all the way down to zero.
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April 16, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Last week the Wall Street Journal‘s James Freeman wrote about the wishful thinking of California elites who waive away any of the sensible causes for the droves of people leaving California (resulting in a sustained net population loss over the last few years for the first time in 170 years) such as high taxes, senseless regulation, rising crime, unaffordable housing etc. Maybe Mr. Newsom is just unlucky. This week in
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April 15, 2024 — Steven Hayward
With everyone’s favorite day (April 15) hard upon us, worth noting how state income tax rates fall out. Pick your home state accordingly:
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April 12, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As readers will know by now, the mid-week inflation report came in “hot,” such that a June interest rate cut if thought to be off the table. Markets tumbled, and expectations for interest rate cuts tanked as well. Apparently no one has been paying attention to soaring commodity prices, which is usually a bad sign. In any case, here’s a before- and after- shot at why Biden is desperate for
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April 11, 2024 — Steven Hayward
So we went and banned plastic straws and plastic bags in much of California and elsewhere because they are made from fossil fuels and a solitary turtle was once found snorting fentanyl through a plastic straw, or something. In any case, Greta/Gaia was displeased, so plastic products had to go. Well guess what: the substitutes for plastic products mostly produce higher greenhouse gas emissions than plastic. Not by just a
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