The Trump Administration Announced It’s Bringing Back the Federal Death Penalty. Is It That Simple?
The execution chamber at the US Penitentiary in Terre HauteScott Olson/Getty After a 16-year hiatus, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it would be resuming the execution of inmates who are on federal death row. The executions will begin in December, when five inmates charged with grisly murders will be sent to the federal…
One-Eighth of Republicans Want to Abolish Medicare
Pew Research has a new poll out about national health care. But they got the wrong headline: The key difference in health care provision is, and always has been, between universal and non-universal health care. If you’re in favor of universal health care, the difference between a pure government program and a mixed public/private program…
Private Sector GDP Growth Is Kind of Anemic
Today’s GDP report got me curious about something: how does private sector GDP compare to total GDP? That is, if you pull out government contributions to GDP growth, what does purely private-sector growth look like? Here it is: Private sector growth has been declining since the start of the expansion, and that decline has picked…
Raw Data: E-Commerce Around the World
Yesterday I posted a chart showing retail sales via brick-and-mortar outlets. Last night, while browsing for something else¹ I happened across a report showing the size of the e-commerce market in various European countries as a percentage of total retail sales. Here it is: Belgium and Ireland are way ahead of the pack. Conversely, Germans…
Can Chefs Learn to Love Cooking Without Fire?
Koldunov/Getty Picture a chunky gas-fired stovetop. Twist a knob, and whoosh—a potent ring of fire licks at a metal grate. Now think of an induction range: a glass flattop etched with pot-sized circles. Push a button, and the reaction is silent and invisible. As a committed home cook who toiled on the fiery line of…
Inside the Courtroom Where Every Asylum Seeker Gets Rejected
Alex NabaumIn February 2018, in a small courtroom in rural Louisiana, an Eritrean man was fighting an impossible battle. The man, whom I’ll call Abraham—he asked that his real name not be used—was trying to convince immigration judge Agnelis Reese that he should receive asylum in the United States. He told Reese he had been imprisoned…