The Great Crash of 1929 by Mark Franke One of the most fascinating books I read in high school was “The Great Crash: 1929” by John Kenneth Galbraith. I believed what most everyone else did, that the Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash. Galbraith disabused me of such a simplistic explanation. Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book, “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — And How It Shattered a…

Politics, Voting Are Overrated “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 10 IN THE MORNING MAIL is the two-thousandth postcard asking for my vote. The thought occurs that in a lifetime of going to the polls I have voted against my own interests a good deal of the time. I didn’t know enough — couldn’t know enough — to choose wisely. Might I have been better off letting the more grounded do the voting? Not really; it didn’t matter one way or…

by Tyler Watts, Ph.D. We free-market economists tend to pooh-pooh complaints about income and wealth inequality. When “democratic socialist” or even populist right-wing demagogues complain about stagnant or declining middle-class incomes, we point out all sorts of empirical flaws in the data they use: “They don’t include government transfer payments in income measures.” True. “They don’t include the monetary value of benefits like health insurance.” Often true. “They don’t account for the fact that almost…

Incoming! Media Bias! OK, WE GET IT. The corporate media does not like the application of military power by a Republican president. But like it or not, the destruction of bridges, power supplies and manufacturing plants is what armed forces do when an enemy refuses to surrender. It has been so since the application of gun powder. Before that, they laid siege and threatened to starve everybody to death. An example of the converse is the thousands of lives that…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Ahh, it’s that time of the year again: the weather is (usually) warming; the flowers are blooming; and income tax forms are due. Everyone knows about the IRS and their W-2’s — whether they fill out their taxes by hand, use software, or pay a professional. State and local taxes hit most workers. But at least if you have a family, federal income taxes don’t get rolling until you’re making $50K…

by Mark Frank At risk of irritating my wife . . .  again . . . it is time for my annual baseball column. Major League Baseball is well underway and the TinCaps have opened their home season. I have moved my “baseball” TV out of winter storage to the back porch where my baseball addiction is less irritating. Some random thoughts on the new season: My MLB network subscription has been renewed at no…

Politics From the Pews POLITICS IS SOMETHING we don’t talk about in my church — “verboten” my Lutheran grandmother would say. That has never made sense to me. I understand why a pastor may not want to politicize from the pulpit, but Christianity is so entwined with Western Civilization that it would seem a good idea to keep tabs on how things are going. A friend declares this political silence in the pews to be unnatural. He has…

Consent of the Governed  “The United States Government faces growing difficulty in fulfilling its purpose because at least some of its powers are no longer derived from the consent of the governed.”  This was the topic taken on by my Socratic discussion group in March and it proved a difficult one. We never completely resolved it. We immediately got stuck on answering these fundamental questions: That kept us busy for our allotted two hours. The…

The Democratic Illusion “NO KINGS” RALLIES are gearing up in Indiana for this weekend. It’s a big deal. Forty events are scheduled. Ten Indiana newspapers have signed on with promotional advertisements. It is a good time to review the state of democracy. It’s in bad shape, obviously. We can’t agree on even whether or not elections should be “fair.” Still, nobody, or very few of us, would dare defend the alternative of monarchy. That’s why the social-justice warriors of…

The Political Distraction of Youth THERE IS SOMETHING about the middle-aged mind that imagines it can transmit seamlessly to the next generation the observations, wisdom and judgment of a lifetime. The reality, for better or for worse, is that each generation makes up its own mind in its own time. Nonetheless, we continue to launch grand projects in the name of youth, ignoring that the young by definition lack serious influence, resources or attention span. Plus, they change their addresses and their…