Always true, just now laid bare by the pandemic:
In transit conversations we often talk about meeting the needs of people who depend on transit. This makes transit sound like something we’re doing for them. But in fact, those people are providing services that we all depend on, so by serving those lower income riders, we’re all serving ourselves.
Always nice to see the workers leveraging circumstances to their advantage, as I expect them to do over the next year or two.
emperor Justinian railed against scarce workers who “demand double and triple wages and salaries, in violation of ancient customs” and forbade them “to yield to the detestable passion of avarice” — to charge market wages for their labor…
Boy are these guys in trouble:
Over the past 40 years, schools, particularly less selective ones, have fought ever harder to attract students. The conventional wisdom held that the best way to do so was to upgrade facilities, build new dormitories and student centers, and provide increasingly luxurious amenities. The result has been a flood of debt…
Source: Coronavirus: U.S. Colleges and Universities Reach Breaking Point
Too bad the Fed doesn’t have any epidemiologists. Or virologists working on vaccines.
My brother adds, “They probably don’t even have any mixologists.”
Of course, it is cocktail hour…
Currently reading: How to do Nothing: Resisting the attention economy by Jenny Odell, ISBN: 9781612197494
I observed a year ago that post-crisis bank regulation amounted to the Fed admitting that it was a failure, with banks treating reserves like pre-1913 banks treated gold. So I’m pleased to see that at least some Fed officials understand that this is a problem.
it is worth remembering that a principal reason for the Federal Reserve’s creation was to facilitate the movement of reserves when needed from banks with an excess reserve position to those in need of reserves
Source: Federal Reserve Board – The Economic Outlook, Monetary Policy, and the Demand for Reserves
Struck by Brett Scott’s great line in “The war on cash“:
It’s not a “cashless society” – but a “bankful society,”
I went to follow @Suitpossum, only to find I already do.
The one good thing about this is that it presents a space where alternatives to Google can compete.
The most discouraging aspect is how Google now doesn’t even bother to return results about vast swaths of the internet. —Bit Rot and Search Engines | Bierfaristo Blog
If you refinanced your mortgage 8 or 10 years ago there’s probably no reason to do it again. (Maybe your mortgage is almost paid off!) But mortgage rates are setting new generational lows and if you have any substantial balance left it might be worth refinancing.
I can kinda understand the 0.1% (with secure bunkers on high ground) talking down climate change. But what’s up with ordinary people living near a coast? How are they not demanding urgent action?
