I literally took an Econ 101 class and they definitely explained a lot of things like externalities and the limitations of free markets and stuff they allegedly “don’t teach in Econ 101”.
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Econ 101 classes might even get into how Adam Smith spent about 100 x as much time talking about the hazards of monopolies than of government regulation.
Speaking of land and Adam Smith/econ 101
As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.
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Exception that proves the rule.
Texas Attorney Generals office is a joke
One prosecutor said he quit in January after supervisors pressured him to withhold evidence in a murder case. Another attorney signed a resignation letter in March that warned of growing hostility toward LGBTQ employees. By August, records show the division over human trafficking cases — a major emphasis in Texas, where more than 50 migrants died in the back of a trailer in June — had a job vacancy rate of 40%
The latest departures are aftershocks of an extraordinary revolt in autumn 2020, when eight of Paxton’s top deputies accused the attorney general of using the office to help a political donor who employed a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having had an extramarital affair. The deputies all quit or were fired after going to the FBI, which opened an investigation that remains ongoing.
After the dramatic exit of Paxton’s top staff in 2020, those brought into senior roles included a California attorney who donated $10,000 to help Paxton fight his 2015 securities fraud indictment and Tom Kelly Gleason, a former ice cream company owner whose father gave $50,000 to the attorney general’s legal defense fund.
Gleason was fired less than two months into his new job as a law enforcement adviser. Paxton’s office has not disclosed why, but three people with knowledge of the matter said Gleason included child pornography in a work presentation at the agency’s Austin headquarters.
The people said Gleason displayed the video — which one of them described as showing a man raping a small child — in a misguided effort to underscore agency investigators difficult work. It was met with outrage and caused the meeting to quickly dissolve.
In May, the head of Paxton’s election integrity division invited his team to a movie theater for a screening of “2000 Mules,” the debunked film that falsely claims to prove the 2020 election was stolen.
“General Paxton will be present, among others, and I think they would love to have a good showing from our office,” assistant attorney general Jonathan White wrote in an email.
As senior lawyers have been leaving the attorney general’s office, newcomers who’ve stuck by Paxton have seen their careers and compensation skyrocket.
Aaron Reitz, who finished law school in 2017, was hired as an aide to Paxton’s top deputy at a salary of $135,000 in October 2020. The next month, after the deputy reported Paxton to the FBI and quit, Reitz was promoted to oversee agency legal strategy, a senior job making $205,000.
In June, Reitz’s assistant sent out invitations to a “2000 Mules viewing party,” complete with barbecue. More than 90 staff and interns were later told to bring their own lunch.
Will any of this chrony-sim, incompetence, and dysfunction slow support from the Republican populous?
Nope
In America’s largest red state, the accusations have not given GOP voters pause about Paxton, who carried Donald Trump’s endorsement into again winning his party’s nomination. Paxton faces Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza, a first-time candidate and former ACLU attorney, in the November election.
“He’s been one of the greatest attorneys general for the state of Texas and one of the most conservative ones in the entire country,” said Abraham George, chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, adding that Paxton deserves the same presumption of innocence as any other American.
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Rofl this is not a normal way to refer to AGs.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but doesn’t the Paul Giamatti character do this on the reg in Billions? I may be remembering it wrong.
Not sure about that, but if the media ever started calling Merrick Garland “General Garland” Tucker Carlson would have a stroke.
It also made me think of this other General:
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IIRC, he never did it when referring to him or talking about him. Only when talking directly to him (e.g. “Thank you, General”). Maybe it was some sort of trolling. Or maybe I’m just totally remembering it wrong. I’m a few seasons behind on the show maybe I’ll get back to it someday.
Louis DeJoy is still running USPS
Pretty sick commercial IYAM.
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1575551186702258176?t=PJUSqIH4DRGX6zI0wr930g&s=19
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Didn’t The Hill just fire a writer the other day for using the word Apartheid when talking about Italy?
Shit. Isreal. I meant Israel.
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So pretty much every kid’s show host ends up having some kind of mental breakdown or something.
My undergrad econ degree was completely useless at learning about how economics works in the real world.
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My understanding is that as the number of people who have taken Econ 101 goes up, the value of that experience goes down.
I will try to post a chart later.
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Hey look at that! Another investigation that’s “ongoing” for what, 7 years? It’s like there’s a pattern of institutional cowardice or something.
This strikes me as a pretty crazy graph.
https://twitter.com/DistractedAnna/status/1575639799767015424?s=20&t=yqbMHEv3MBaaSISvyUS8Vw
That’s like a 75% drop in 15-19 birth rate in 30 years. I don’t know if that should be cheered or viewed as evidence of social pathologies, particularly about the cost of living and raising a child and/or reduction in teen sexual activity. Probably a lot of factors, but it’s a massive drop.
Somehow the internet killed childbirth?
That sounds like amazing progress to me. Teenagers shouldn’t have children.
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That’s always been my default position, but it creates a situation where there’s not even replacement level birth.
Summary: The U.S. population’s total fertility rate is now approximately 1.7 births per female, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1 that is required for the U.S. population not to shrink without increases in immigration. Women are delaying motherhood, from the 2006 average age range of 25 to 29 to the 30 to 34 age range today. Measuring Fertility in the United States — Penn Wharton Budget Model