Epicurus may not have approved of politicians, and there is a good reason for that. The current furore over voting rights should be alarming to everyone who cherishes the American system, imperfect as are most of the works of humanity. The ruthless pursuit of power and refusal to compromise is un- Epicurean. The The following …
The message from the reader: “Sorry, but it was the President and Chief negotiator of the European Commission who caused the crisis. “ If, immediately following the results of the vote on the 23rd June 2016, the President of the EU had acknowledged the dissatisfaction of a proportion of the British (mainly English) electorate and …
Continue reading ‘An answer to a reader who thinks Brexit is the fault of the EU’ »
The mighty US dollar continues to reign supreme in global markets. But the greenback’s dominance may well be more fragile than it appears, because expected future changes in China’s exchange-rate regime are likely to trigger a significant shift in the international monetary order. For many reasons, the Chinese authorities will probably someday stop pegging the …
Continue reading ‘The future of the dollar (a bit long, but important)’ »
Fossil fuel companies in the US received billions of dollars in tax benefits through government coronavirus relief measures, but laid off tens of thousands of workers, figures show. A group of 77 firms received $8.2bn in tax-code changes under the massive stimulus bill passed by Congress last last year, and some benefited from the paycheck …
Discomfort among European leaders this week after Joe Biden’s surprise proposal of a temporary patents waiver to boost the supply of Covid vaccines for poorer countries. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission boss, said the EU was open to the idea, but at a summit in Porto, Germany and France gave it a cool …
The U.K. government is facing a backlash from some of the country’s most prominent artists and writers after revealing plans to slash funding for higher education arts courses by 50%. The budget cuts follow a six-week consultation by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and the Office for Students, the independent regulator for higher education in England, that …
Thousands of British citizens in France have been left without a valid driving licence, or face losing theirs within months, because of bureaucratic overload and the failure of the two countries’ governments to sign a post-Brexit reciprocal agreement. “I’d say there are 3,000 who are seriously worried – for whom this has really become nightmarish,” …
This is the perspective of a native American: “Recently, Rick Santorum repeated a widely held myth of US exceptionalism. “We came here and created a blank slate, we birthed a nation from nothing,” the former US senator and CNN commentator told the rightwing Young America’s Foundation’s summit. “It was born of the people who came …
One in 10 Indigenous Americans don’t have access to safe tap water or basic sanitation. The US government has not done enough to ensure Indigenous American tribes have clean drinking water and sanitation. An estimated one in 10 Indigenous Americans don’t have access to safe tap water or basic sanitation, which causes a range of …
Twenty years of jail time! This is what one Black man endured for stealing two (yes, 2) shirts! My comment: Epicurus is known, among other things, for advocating moderation. He would be speechless with disbelief if told of such a sentence in his own day. In the US the legal system is broken and is …
More than 12,000 Americans have been killed by guns this year alone. As a long-ago foreigner I have never understood how so many people interpret the Constitution so strangely. Arming citizens (it is clear to me anyway) was in the context of membership of citizen militias, defending against foreign interference. Yes, the wording is careless, …
Continue reading ‘The disgusting situation with gun deaths’ »
You may have a roommate you have never met. And even worse, they are nosy. They track what you watch on TV, they track when you leave the lights on in the living room, and they even track whenever you use a key fob to enter the house. This is the reality of living in …
The coronavirus pandemic has fuelled an “unprecedented exodus” of migrant workers that has caused the UK population to plummet and may result in “profound” damage to London’s economy, according to a new study. The Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence says that analysis of estimated labour figures suggests more than half a million non-UK-born people left …
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is preparing to put all first-class mail on a single delivery track, according to two people briefed on his plan for the U.S Postal Service, a move that would mean even slower and costlier service for both consumers and commercial mailers. The plan also prevents first-class mail from being shipped by …
For years many of the richest people in the United States have avoided paying their fair share of taxes thanks to a deliberately underfunded IRS that is incapable of aggressively policing wealthy tax cheats. So much money that is rightly owed to the IRS is being unpaid that, by simply giving the IRS more resources, …
