Author: nick

[ad_1] When I first heard the term “financial repression,” I thought it had to be a joke. Why would governments and central banks use a term with such a negative connotation? Even people who are financially illiterate can understand that financial repression is a bad thing. Simply put, financial repression is a strategy governments use to reduce their debt burden by manipulating interest rates below inflation. It allows them to borrow in dollars and repay in dimes. Here’s how the IMF describes it, emphasis mine: “Financial repression includes directed lending to government by captive domestic audiences (such as pension funds), explicit or…

[ad_1] Why GOP Could Still Keep Control of House [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] GOP leaders tried to nudge the congressman into retirement. As the dropout deadline arrives in his competitive district, he’s plowing forward. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair Since its last two murders in mid-July, ICE, mothballed for a mere 24-hours, has dropped out of the news. Its stop and shoot habit, one can only assume, is approved by the man who nixed the Department of Homeland Security’s pause of it, namely Donald “Deporter-In-Chief” Trump. On July 13, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Guerrero, who was not the operation’s intended target. In other words, ICE would have you believe he was collateral damage in some Marvel-Comics war on immigrant criminals. But ICE’s war is on immigrants per se (as everybody…

[ad_1] Gas prices are still up, U.S. long-range missiles are depleted, and President Trump’s own voters are losing patience with his Iran war. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] In its 1833 decision in Barron v. Baltimore, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed something about the American constitutional order that had been widely understood since the founding. Namely, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and placed no limits on the authority of the states. The First Amendment was actually quite explicit about it. “Congress shall make no law,” it reads, “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,…

[ad_1] I am back from an almost three week trip to LA, Sydney and Christchurch. Sorry I did not have time to keep up with my blog over that period – in which we recorded four live SGU shows, produced three days of conference content, put on two stage shows, and hosted several other events. It was a tremendous amount of fun, but also a great deal of work. I am now jet-lagged and fighting off the remains of a viral infection I picked up along the way. Such trips always reinvigorate my dedication to science communication and scientific skepticism.…

[ad_1] Cartoon decrying the Hamburg massacre of July 1876 As the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary, its citizens commemorate a democracy more diverse, free and inclusive than it’s ever been. The path to this milestone was imperfect and paved in blood and suffering. Still, few of the revelers will likely pay heed to the anniversary of another historic event: the 150th anniversary of the July 1876 Hamburg massacre. The massacre, which took place in Hamburg, South Carolina, began as a dispute between a local Black militia and two white citizens over whether the latter could cross the group’s centennial Fourth…

[ad_1] Despite the heroic struggle of the people of Hiroshima, 81 years ago today, and of Nagasaki, the horrors of 1945 have too often been forgotten or ignored, says Peter Kuznick.  An atomic cloud hangs over the Japanese city of Nagasaki after the U.S. dropped a second nuclear bomb on the country on Aug. 9th, 1945. (Hiromichi Matsuda / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain) The following is the text of a keynote address the author delivered in Nagasaki on July 25 at an international peace conference sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun, the Nagasaki city government and the Nagasaki peace movement.…

[ad_1] realResearchers have developed solar cells that retain 97% of their efficiency under shaded conditions after 2,000 hours of continuous testing, according to a report. The achievement represents a step forward in addressing a long-standing limitation of photovoltaic panels, the study stated. The cells incorporate a custom bypass architecture and advanced perovskite-silicon tandem layers designed to minimize power loss from partial shading. Conventional solar panels experience significant efficiency drops when even a small portion is shaded, but the new design reroutes current through unaffected cells, the researchers said. Technology and Mechanism The challenge of shade has long plagued solar panel…