The Daily Chart
May 24, 2024 — Steven Hayward
By now most readers have heard about the extreme clear air turbulence that a Singapore Airlines jumbo jet that left one passenger dead (an apparent heart attack) and several others seriously injured. You knew what was coming next: the media, taking orders from the usual idiots, declaring that climate change is the cause of this rare event. So kudos to Rupa Subramanya at The Free Press for writing “Stop Making
»
May 23, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It is dogma among radical feminists and the identity politics brigades that America is in the oppressive grip of The Patriarchy. It would seem this is obsolete information (I know, facts have nothing to do with anything—”facts” are an oppressive white male construct, like “objectivity”). From our irrepressible pal Mark Perry:
»
May 22, 2024 — Steven Hayward
President Biden is determined to pander to youth voters who don’t like him by forgiving student debt despite his previous plan being struck down by the Supreme Court. His new plan likely has the same legal defects. In any case, it represents a massive wealth transfer from non-college working class taxpayers to generally more affluent upper middle class individuals and/or their families. But dig a little deeper and the wealth
»
May 21, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Separately I intend to get around to considering whether it is starting to occur to our university leadership class that the ugly campus protests of this spring are the result of two generations of the steady infantilization of students and indulgence of radical ideology (short answer for now—not yet). But the results of several recent surveys show how different the current younger generation (Gen Z) is: And finally, from the
»
May 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It is likely the case that Russia is slowly winning the war against Ukraine, despite American assistance to Ukraine. But, we are told, our sanctions, together with our European allies, are grinding down the Russian economy. I wonder about this. Especially when you see figures like this (EU exports to Kyrgyzstan, indicating a massive workaround for sanctions): Does anyone really believe that Kyrgyzstan’s economy boomed this much starting in March
»
May 16, 2024 — Steven Hayward
With some Democratic Senators up for re-election running ads attacking President Biden over our open border (both Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio say they “have fought President Biden over the border” in TV spots), there are rumors that Biden is considering an executive order that would shut the southern border every day after 4,000 people have crossed. What a tough guy! It’s amazing how Democratic presidents
»
May 15, 2024 — Steven Hayward
With reports that Joe Biden is once again considering taking oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because of the national crisis of his flailing re-election campaign (and with oil prices today yo-yoing considerably), our pals at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity remind us of the long-term effect of markets and liberated production, as we saw after Reagan decontrolled the price of oil on his first day in office in 1981:
»
May 14, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Our first look today displays which college majors lead to higher earning potential, and there are no surprises here: Unfortunately this survey doesn’t break out (because perhaps they couldn’t ask) gender studies majors and other politicized “studies” fields. A separate survey notes that support for the proposition that violence is justified to stop a campus speech from someone who is disliked runs strongest among the “studies” fields:
»
May 13, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As everyone who follows the financial markets knows, the Federal Reserve is trying to walk a fine line, hinting that they’d like to start cutting interest rates, but still worried that inflation is proving too persistent to do it just yet (never mind whether real inflation is actually higher than the official headline rate because of how we measure inflation these days). Further rate hikes seem to be ruled but,
»
May 10, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Matthew Yglesias, a progressive-leaning writer with a popular Substack site, reflected recently on how his views about climate change have departed from progressive orthodoxy. He writes: “I’ve come to see the mainstreaming of this fairly extreme approach to climate change as probably the central error of the contemporary progressive movement. . . Voters don’t care that much about the Democrats’ top priority.” Maybe, just maybe, we have reached and passed
»
May 9, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I still argue that the only good thing that happened during the Obama years was all-day breakfast at McDonalds, and COVID took that away from us. Which is when I started saying that COVID won’t be truly over until we get all-day breakfast at McDonalds back again. And it looks like that isn’t going to happen. One reason might be that consumers can’t afford it: Part of a general pattern
»
May 8, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Good news and bad news from a recent survey of college students about what issues are most important to them. The good news is that the conflagration in the Middle East is not exciting very many of them. The bad news is that a lot of other lefty crap—especially gun control, climate change, and “racial justice”—still commands a hefty plurality. One caveat is that this survey apparently doesn’t ask students
»
May 7, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Further to the argument made last week that college admissions offices should be fired wholesale because they bear responsibility for admitted so many deranged students, note what appears to be evidence that elite college admissions actively favor composing their classes of leftists. And then act surprised when they sack buildings and grandstand at commencement ceremonies. From Nate Silver: Chaser—You can include elite graduate fellowships, too:
»
May 6, 2024 — Steven Hayward
From our friends at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, some measures of the magnitude and persistence of inflation under President Biden and previous presidents. But remember, Joe told us that “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show any more.” Someone forgot to tell this to inflation. Chaser—Slow Joe might not want to count on a rate cut from the Fed just yet:
»
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
»
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
»
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.
»
