Why Didn’t Donald Trump Renominate Janet Yellen as Fed Chair?
Yin Bogu/Xinhua via ZUMA Dan Drezner is trying to figure out why President Trump didn’t do the easy thing and renominate Janet Yellen for a second term as Fed chairman: As Trump decisions go, choosing Powell is far from his worst one. But it’s frustrating when there exists an obvious, superior choice on the menu…
Here’s the Joint Fundraising Agreement Between Hillary Clinton and the DNC
Following up on yesterday’s post about Hillary Clinton’s joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic National Committee, here is the memo itself: So the bottom line is this: The DNC was broke, and Clinton agreed to raise enough to money to fund its data, technology, analytics, research, and communications functions. In return, the Clinton campaign got…
USA USA! We’re (Almost) #1 in Machines That Go Ping
I was fiddling around looking for something unrelated, and happened to run across this chart from the latest OECD “Health at a Glance” report. We’re #1 in health spending, of course, and we pay inflated prices for just about everything. But what’s equally interesting is what we spend all that money on. More doctors? Nope.…
The Tech Industry Is Clueless About People. Let’s Debug It.
Mother Jones illustration; Dimitris66/Getty In October, Google Maps rolled out an experimental feature that estimated the number of calories burned when people walked to their destinations. The feature had a little quirk, though: It used mini-cupcakes to illustrate the calorie counts. The backlash was immediate. Users pointed out that calorie counts could act as a…
You Can’t End the War on Coal Without Starting a War on Public Health
Steve Helber/AP This story was originally published by New Republic and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Of all the scenes of devastation in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, one video has stood out. Shot from a balcony or rooftop, it depicts six seconds of horror: the city of Guayama, on the island’s southern coast, engulfed…
The Republican Tax Plan Would Help Rich Families Send Their Children to Private School
Donald Trump with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at the White House.Evan Vucci/AP Under a Republican tax bill that experts anticipate would disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans, families would be able to withdraw up to $10,000 a year from tax-free college savings accounts known as 529s and use it for tuition and expenses at K-12 schools, including…