.............................................in lip-syncing.
Monday, May 4, 2026
Not sure whether to laugh or cry.......
In the meantime, Warsh, as official chairman, could try to speed Powell’s departure by making his life at the Fed uncomfortable: maybe take away his parking space and staff plus put his office in the basement. But the decision to leave would still be Powell’s until January 2028.
Based on Powell’s statements about trying to protect Fed “independence” from politics, preventing Trump from getting a board majority may be an ulterior motive for Powell to stay, which means the policy shifts supported by Warsh could be on the back burner for some time to come.
-Brian Wesbury, from here
Being busy is not being able to add anything else to your calendar. Being fulfilled is not wanting to add anything else to your calendar. Don’t confuse one for the other.
-Mark Manson, from here
Learned something new today............
Uruguay had been established with the help of Britain as a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil and formally declared independence in 1830. The remainder of the nineteenth century was bloody as those of European descent first massacred the Indigenous peoples and then fell to a series of civil wars between the Blancos, the conservative champions of the rights of landowners, and the Colorados, the liberals based largely in Montevideo. Although the Colorados won every election held between 1865 and 1958, it took a long time for that to equate to stability. By 1900, Uruguay had suffered around fifty coups and uprisings.
-Jonathan Wilson, The Power and The Glory: The History of the World Cup
soccer does matter.............
Successes allow leaders to strut and pontificate, to make grand speeches about the symbolic ramifications of victory. Soccer has, at least if claims made in the moment of glory are to be believed, put Uruguay on the map, reintegrated postwar West Germany into the global community, and ended racism in France. That's almost entirely nonsense, of course, but it doesn't mean that the assertions are not revealing. And soccer does matter, does offer insights, often unconscious, into the desires and doubts of a culture, never more so than in the quadrennial snapshot offered by the World Cup.
-Jonathan Wilson, The Power and The Glory: The History of the World Cup
Slopulism....................
In general, this tax idea fits into the increasing trend toward “slopulism” in Democratic policymaking — the idea that a modern government can be funded solely on the backs of the super-rich, while the merely-rich get big tax cuts.
-Noah Smith, as he looks at California's "one time" billionaire tax
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Feels like he's nagging....................
People underestimate themselves and overestimate how long things take.
You can do far more than you think, far better, and far faster.
-Shane Parrish, from here
For kids of all ages................
The most damaging idea in modern parenting might be the phrase “screen time” itself.
Treating “screen time” as one thing is like treating “food time” as one thing. A grilled salmon and a Pop-Tart are both “food.” A kid using an adaptive math app for 20 minutes and a kid mainlining TikTok for 20 minutes are both on “screens.” In both cases, lumping them together makes it impossible to think clearly about what’s actually happening to your kid’s brain.
-From this episode of the Austin Scholar substack
Predictions are hard................
This data is fairly well known. The problem, though, is that trading activity generates revenue for the brokerage industry, so it has an interest in keeping investors engaged with the market. That’s why brokerage analysts are on TV every day, offering their forecasts for individual stocks, for the overall market and for the broader economy. To be sure, this makes for interesting television. The problem, though, is that it’s been shown to carry almost no value. According to research by Joachim Klement, the accuracy of Wall Street prognosticators is approximately zero.
-Adam Grossman, from here
Getting a taste............................
.................................of Edward Hopper.
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception. The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form, and design. The term "life" as used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great.
-Edward Hopper, from here (page 8)
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