The Daily Chart
October 5, 2022 — Steven Hayward
More and more women are not getting married for some reason. Numerous reasons are posited, from feminism to the fact that young men seem uninterested—or unable—to get married themselves, which may be the reciprocal of feminism. It is a long subject we won’t try to explain here, but this chart is not good news.
»
October 4, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Over the last 20 to 30 years there has been constant speculation that the status of the U.S. dollar as the world’s primary or even sole reserve currency might be challenged or displaced by the Euro, China’s Renminbi, or perhaps even cryptocurrency. And yet just now, with global uncertainty, out of control inflation, and reliable energy priced in dollars, we see that the dollar is proving the Aragorn of currencies:
»
October 3, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Monetary policy will always be a difficult “black box” problem, and in any case it is always reactive, which is one reason why hard money is likely a better system for monetary and price stability over time (although Milton Friedman repeatedly schooled me on why this is wrongheaded). In any case, all of the talk about achieving a “soft landing” in the current Fed tightening cycle looks foolishly optimistic given
»
October 1, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Normally we’ll just run The Daily Chart on weekdays, but the chart that the Wall Street Journal includes in today’s feature article “Where Democrats’ Grip on Minority Voters Could Slip in Midterm Elections” ought to be giving Democrats nightmares and thus deserves a special notice today. It is happening with Asian voters, too:
»
September 30, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Most news accounts of inflation report chiefly on the aggregate “headline” rate, lately above 8 percent. But when you break out price levels by subcategories, you can see that many of the things that consumer spend most of their income for have risen much more than 8 percent over the last year (especially fuel oil, which many households in the northeast use for winter heating), suggesting that real inflation is
»
September 29, 2022 — Steven Hayward
What if we applied anti-trust principles against concentration in industry and market collusion to higher education? We might very well conclude that the ivy league should be broken up. The figure below, from Nature magazine, shows that a tiny handful of universities produce the large majority of college professors today. What this means for intellectual diversity, and the competition of ideas and methodologies, is pretty clear, since most academic departments
»
September 28, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I borrow today’s chart from a recent presentation from Peter Thiel (who I am having dinner with tonight in Palo Alto, as it happens). A close look reveals that the previously “red hot” housing market in California actually lags the truly dynamic metro areas of the country by a lot. In his full talk at the link, he explains how progressive “tolerance” of California’s homelessness and crime actually serves the
»
September 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Everyone recall’s Rahm Emanuel revealing the core tactic of progressivism, which is never letting a crisis got to waste in service of extending government power, and as such the global COVID pandemic was the dream crisis for the Davoisie’s dream of “the Great Reset.” We can see the concrete result: a diminution of economic freedom as measured by the Fraser Institute’s fine annual report on Economic Freedom in the World.
»
September 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Everyone remember back to The Population Bomb of the 1970s? It turns out the story of the second half of the 21st century may be the world’s population starting to crash. China’s population in 2100 may be below 500 million, less than half the population today. The projections below show in graphic form why China abruptly ended its rigid one-child policy a few years ago.
»
September 23, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Take a good close look at this table that breaks down MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) scores by race from a few years ago. Perhaps the most curious anomaly of this table is in the last column, where hispanic average MCAT score is higher than white scores, even though the average GPA is lower. It should be noted, however, that the “hispanic” racial category the government uses is completely incoherent.
»
September 22, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I am at a loss to think of a single measurable improvement in public education that can be attributed to the existence of the federal Department of Education, and a look at staffing changes since the year 2000 suggests that George W. Bush’s signature education bill should perhaps be known as the No Administrator Left Behind Act.
»
September 21, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Back in the late stages of the Cold War, we used to mock the Soviet Politburo for being a collection of senescent Communist Party time-servers. Well, America’s Congress is looking more and more like the Politburo these days. Maybe this explains a few things, and perhaps is another reason for term limits.
»
September 20, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Let’s look at what’s on everyone’s mind at the moment, especially on the mean streets of Martha’s Vineyard. Vice President Harris says “the border is secure.” Maybe her best nonsense word salad ever. Here’s what “secure” looks like: Bonus for our first day:
»
September 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
COVID is so over that even Joe Biden gets it, though his declaration over the weekend that COVID is over is going to annoy the masks-forever faction of the Democratic Party, and make J. Edgar Fauci totally redundant. Prediction: somehow I expect the Biden Administration will find reasons to extend the COVID “state of emergency” anyway, because we’re still coping with the aftermath. Or something.
»
