Home » 2013 (Page 5)

Yearly Archives: 2013

Day of the Doctor

Posted on by | 8 Comments

Are you ready for the Day of the Doctor? If you’re not a fan of the TV show, which has 1.6M viewers here in the US, you may have not heard the hype. For fans, however, it’s the biggest event in the last 50 years. That’s how long it’s been on, first airing on 23 November 1963 (oddly, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated). 11 people have played the title role and, except for a hiatus between 1989 and 2005, it’s become something of a tradition in the UK.

To celebrate, the special show “The Day of the Doctor” will be shown simultaneously throughout the entire planet, (23 November at 2:50 PM Eastern time, 19:50 GMT) making it the biggest simulcast of anything other than the Olympics. It’s the first truly global television show with fans absolutely all around the world. And that, alone, is worth celebrating.

Continue reading →

Jobs Debate Heats Up

Posted on by | 11 Comments

The October Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) came out last Friday, and it was incredibly positive. 204k jobs were added by the official measure, enough to send the stock market up and make everyone happy. Well, not everyone. There were some strange features in this report that only accelerated the criticism of this report that started the month before and sharpened the political debate over jobs in the new economy.

Much of this is long overdue, but some of the criticism was weak and pointless all the same. Labor force participation has fallen from 63.2% of all workers to a 35 year low of 62.8% – a figure that may or may not be important. And anyone paying attention to the ADP Employment report has to question where the great news came from seeing as the latter had a gain of only 130k jobs. What on earth is going on?

The short answer is that everyone is starting to question everything. It’s a good thing – if we can sort it all out. Let’s give it a try.

Continue reading →

Minneapolis’ New Generation

Posted on by | 9 Comments

Much has been said about the upheaval in the Republican Party. But there may be just as much change happening in the Democratic Party, at least if the Minneapolis City Council election this year is representative of any trends. The generational turnover in the Council has dropped the average age from 52 to 41, by my reckoning, and increased the non-white membership from 1 to 3 of 13 – all of whom are foreign-born.

Is this the future of the Democratic Party? The short answer is yes, but it starts small. Leadership is developed at the local level, and there’s no better place to develop it than the City Council. Minneapolis has a Weak Mayor system, so it’s the council that actually runs things. And not only is the new council much younger, it was generally elected on a platform of social justice and neighborhood development – not downtown.

I may have to stop making fun of our younger sister city.

Continue reading →

Good, Evil, Puzzling, & Stupid

Posted on by | 13 Comments

Every once in a while Barataria has to take a pause from deep economic rumination. It’s time rundown the odd stories that may not have received enough attention elsewhere. There is a lot of news in these chaotic times that smells like it may be important one day but hasn’t quite bubbled up to the level where it hits the mainstream yet. This is just one of those days.

Continue reading →

The “Facts” are Failing

Posted on by | 15 Comments

Back in the 1950s, people who studied complex things like economies felt they were making real progress. The general belief was that by understanding how it all worked we could even things out and usher in a new era of continuous prosperity that would benefit everyone.

Some of the underlying “facts” that were identified at this time have been accepted as simple truths. Growth is always good, and economic growth always flows to workers, making their lives better generation by generation. There’s only one problem lately – some of the “facts” appear to not be as true as they used to be. That means that the underpinnings of modern economic theory are all being questioned and, perhaps, if we don’t keep our eyes open the new era of prosperity will be far more elusive than anyone thought.

Continue reading →