Newmark's Door

"If Deficits Don't Matter, Why Bother with Taxes?"

Excellent question. The answer, from probably the most visible exponent of "Modern Monetary Theory," Stephanie Kelton, is scary.

"How the Myth of the 'Robber Barons' Began—and Why It Persists"

This country would be in better shape if economists did a better job of explaining to citizens why crony capitalism is not "the market" and is not actually capitalism.

"On Biden, Betrayal, Burdens, and Bunk"

Economics is 100% sure of this. (How can you argue with science??)

The reality here is that the corporations that he says are going to send bigger checks to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the tax hike aren’t the ones who actually shoulder this heavier tax burden.

The best explanation I’ve seen on this comes from a 2004 quote by economist Stephen Entin, who wrote, “The economic burden of a tax frequently does not rest with the person or business who has the statutory liability for paying the tax to the government.” That’s because taxes are ultimately only paid by people.

"What do most laypeople fail to understand about modern statistics?"

Quora discussion. Suggestions include the Gambler's Fallacy, relative vs. absolute risk, the power of truly random sampling, and more.

"San Francisco’s corrupt politicians exposed in a Twitter thread"

Really difficult to believe but, hey, it's known as Baghdad by the Bay.

"Childhood is often confusing"

Made me laugh.

"Sam Darnold is sixth consecutive first-round draft pick Jets have traded"

That's seems to me to be the recipe for creating a losing team.

"MLB All-Star Game is $100M loss? Shift the decimal point, economist says"

Not for nothing but I was thinking along the same lines. One report I saw claimed that there were 8000 hotel-nights reserved for the game. This report claims 19300 hotel rooms were reserved. Either way, how the heck does that get you anywhere close to $100 million? Noted Chicago economist Allen Sanderson agrees.

"How Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen went from mediocrity to NFL MVP contender"

"When was the exact moment you realized Josh Allen had made you look like a fool?"

"Mick Jagger Tells the Story Behind ‘Gimme Shelter’ and Merry Clayton’s Haunting Background Vocals"

A cool little story. (Link courtesy of M. Greenspan.)

"What is 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain' by Creedence Clearwater Revival about?"

Quora discussion.

"The 100 Most Iconic Movie Lines of All Time"

An excellent six-minute compilation of some really great lines. Barely a miss in the bunch.

"'A Gigantic Clusterf**k': How Morgan Stanley Avoided $10BN In Archegos Losses By Selling First"

Interesting. And halfway through the piece I thought to myself this is just like how the very enjoyable movie, Margin Call, unfolded. And lo and behold, the author made the same point. (Except in the movie Kevin Spacey claimed that the nobody would ever do business again with the Morgan Stanley-like firm again. Ha!)

"Be first, be smarter, or cheat" indeed.

"CDC's Incoherence Accelerates as They See Power Slipping From Their Grip"

"The old saying, 'never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity,' is probably correct here. That does not mean there isn’t a large dose of malice tossed in for good measure."

"Ponce De Leon Never Searched for the Fountain of Youth"

Dang. Yet another time the historians lied to us.

"Democrats’ Control of the House Is Increasingly Fragile"

Potentially good news for the country.

"Coloring Outside the Lines"

How misleading counting by race is getting to be.

Ten percent of all married people now have a partner of a different race or ethnicity, he finds; likewise, more than 10 percent of babies born in the United States have mixed parentage. Fully 80 percent of those polyglot children have one non-Hispanic white parent. Yet official Census data categorize those children as minorities even when they identify as white.

"Epic: MLB Relocates All-Star Game To State With Voter-ID Laws … And Fewer Early-Voting Days"

But I'm sure it will significantly improve the well-being of a significant number of Americans. Right?

"Kids are using this new strategy to get into top colleges during COVID"

Color me completely unsurprised. Yet another dopey Liberal idea that won't work and will probably be counterproductive.

But the sudden disappearance of a pillar of the college admissions equation is having unexpected consequences — making the application process more confusing, more competitive and more opaque than ever before.

"5 Ways EV Stocks Are Like Tech Stocks Were in 1999"

I believe it.

"Once Held Hostage By Teachers’ Unions, West Virginia Just Passed The Nation’s Broadest School Choice Law"

A relatively brief attempt to answer an important question: "For a state that couldn’t pass a modest measure on Education Savings Accounts just two years ago, it’s a breathtaking turnaround. What changed?"

"The social sciences are useless. So why do we study them? Here’s a good reason"

By Columbia prof. Andrew Gelman. He gives the same answer as that given by my friend and former colleague, Steve Margolis: we're here to play defense.

The baseball analyst Bill James once said that the alternative to good statistics is not no statistics, it’s bad statistics. Similarly, the alternative to good social science is not no social science, it’s bad social science.

"The Week in Cancellation: Bonus Obama Edition?"

I think this an excellent, completely accurate thesis.

I’ve had a theory for a while now, for which there is some suggestive empirical survey data, that the left began to go nuts a couple years before Trump rode down the escalator in 2015 and caused full-blown leftist insanity. The theory, first suggested to me by Charles Murray actually, is that the activist left was frustrated and angry by around 2014 that President Obama was such a huge disappointment.

"Why stocks are good hedges for inflation."

By Richard Warr, professor of finance at NC State. The claim is consistent with an earlier link posted here.

"Robinhood day trader looking at $800,000 tax bill even though he only made $45,000 trading stocks. Yes, this can really happen."

Pro tip: watch out for that "wash sale" rule.