Gongol.com Archives: July 2019

Brian Gongol


July 2, 2019

Threats and Hazards Oversight report: Migrant detainees aren't being treated well

If the government is going to spend $10, then $1 in oversight costs may well be needed to ensure that the other $9 are spent well. Oversight matters.

Business and Finance Lee Iacocca passes away

It's well worth noting (as Karl Smith does) that Iacocca was a manager, not a capitalist. Managers are necessary in every economic system, and they are valuable -- but the differences separating managerial capitalism, proprietor capitalism, shareholder capitalism, and corporatist capitalism are all worth a lot more attention than they usually get.

Weather and Disasters The granularity of GOES satellite imagery is amazing

Individual storm anvils and overshooting tops can be seen

Humor and Good News Monetarist Buffalo wings

A delicious complement to "neo-classical Buffalo wings", whatever those might be

The United States of America 158 million adults worldwide would like to become Americans

Per a 2018 poll by Gallup. What would happen if the US said "We will welcome the accession of any city, province, or country on a 20-year path to statehood, provided you bring a balanced budget and a clear commitment to the rule of American law"?

News A day that lacks a lot of sense

Lots of people in high-level positions having rush meetings? That's cause for anxiety. And yet the government is trying to put together a military parade in Washington, DC. Putting on a big military parade (just for show) on Day #185 without a Senate-confirmed Secretary of Defense is the national-security version of doing a bunch of bicep curls without ever taking a leg day.

Business and Finance What should it take to get a Ph.D.?

The artificial barriers to entry in graduate-level economics programs suggest to me that there are too many economists who don't actually value human-capital development as much as they might preach.

The United States of America It's hard to preserve what you don't sufficiently value

The casual freedoms Americans will largely take for granted over the Independence Day holiday are exactly the ones we ought to remind ourselves aren't universal


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