Category: Economics

Inflation, Citizen Musk, Dobbs, & Russo-Ukraine War

My plan to post a short reflection every week failed almost immediately. The dual demands of a full-time job and part-time academia meant little time for part-time writing. Nevertheless, I’ll try again. Inflation, Elon Musk buying Twitter, and the leaked first draft opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eclipsed the Russo-Ukraine War in commentariat…
Inflation & Establishment Media

Larry Summers was on Ezra Klein’s New York Times podcast to discuss the state of the world economy (here is the transcript). It was worth listening to only to hear Klein getting mugged by reality, although he still seemed to want to beleive Covid and Ukraine caused high inflation. Say what you want about Summers, but he admitted he…
SCOTUS Appointment & Russo-Ukraine War

SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearings were mostly uneventful. So far she’s saying what she needs to say to get appointed. She strikes me as a good addition to the Court because I don’t think she’s an extreme judicial activist. She handled the unfair question about the “definition of woman” as well as can…
American Discontent

I’ve always found it difficult to stay in the present. Chicago Fog comes from a love of history and a fascination with the ideas that shaped today’s world. At the same time I’ve always enjoyed futurism and the vision of science fiction writers, especially those who write near future realism. The context for science fiction,…
Mercenaries: Private Military Force in the Atlantic World

This was a paper I wrote for an Atlantic History seminar in my graduate history program. In retrospect, I wish I would have worked on finding additional sources. The paper is informative but not insightful. I have a fascination with private military force–this stems from reading too much libertarian science fiction and letting my mind…
Opening Moves

Have you ever taken a personality test? I had to take one several years ago as part of an employer’s training program, doing different versions of the Myers-Briggs test and being scored an INTP or an INTJ. My scores for Thinking and Introversion were at extreme ends, I favored my Intuition over my Sensations, but I…
Reparations: A Dish Best Served Cold

The following post was originally an historiographic discussion submitted as a term paper for a Modern European History reading colloquium. This was the first paper I ever wrote in my graduate history program. Reading it again years later, I’m still happy with the paper though I should have added more of my own thoughts and…
Stagnant Real Income Caused by Stagnant Human Capital

The inevitable, painful march of developed economies and emerging markets to equalize standards of living. Paul Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of Great Powers” that’s central premise was every empire in history fell due to economic weakness and an over burdened military. The fact is this country is still the only super power (despite media…
Chicago Fog Archive, Blog 2.0

Syria, Anarchism’s Bad Brand, and Libya: Early experiments in essays for which Chicago Fog begs the reader’s forgiveness in advance of reading.